Difference between revisions of "Team:UNebraska-Lincoln/Integrated Practices 4"

Line 225: Line 225:
  
 
<h2 class="major">Our Safety Case</h2>
 
<h2 class="major">Our Safety Case</h2>
−
<p><font color="white">Since the inception of the project, we aimed to provide a scientifically feasible and practically safe solution to managing the nitrogen cycle.  One that can be applied to the natural environment.  We designed and installed a novel kill-switch that leads to the death of our machine once the concentration of nitrate is reduced below the safety level.  Over the summer, we met with scientists from local biotech companies and fellow iGEMers to discuss both the scientific and safety aspects our project design. Based on the feedback, we became more mindful of safety and began to integrate an interdisciplinary tool to our project.  We developed safety cases, a method that is currently used to gauge the safety of critical software systems to simulate the end-results of releasing our engineered microorganisms into the environment. </p></font>
+
<br>
−
<p><font color="white"></p></font>
+
−
<p><font color="white"></p></font>
+
<p><font color="white"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The safety case we created will ideally serve as a model for other iGEM teams and set the precedent of how safety cases can be used as a safety platform for the iGEM competition.</span></p>
−
<p><font color="white"></p></font>
+
<p><font color="white">The scope of our safety case is limited to the serA kill switch.</p>
−
<p><font color="white">
+
<h3><font color="white"><strong>Identified Environmental Hazards:</strong></h3>
−
These aspects of our project served the dual benefit of improving our design by forcing us to think critically about the mechanisms and environment of our project and allowing us to connect with and respond to the public in order to educate them and respond to their concerns.</font></p>
+
<ul>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bacterial Conjugation</span></li>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Accidental Release</span></li>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Natural Migration</span></li>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Decomposition of biomass from dead </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">E. coli </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">cells</span></li>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gene products - serA</span></li>
 +
<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Reliability of the BioBricks</span></li>
 +
</ul>
 +
<p><font color="white"><span style="font-weight: 400;">*Further develop the above</span></p>
 +
<br>
 +
 
 +
<p><font color="white"><strong>Insert Safety Case Diagram Here</strong></p>
 +
<br>
 +
 
 +
<p><font color="white"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Click </span><strong>here </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">to view the safety case in a text format</span><strong><strong>&nbsp;</strong></strong></p>
 +
<br>
 +
 
 +
<p><font color="white"><span style="font-weight: 400;">*Briefly describe arguments in the safety case.</span></p>
 +
 
 +
<br>
 +
 
 +
<p><font color="white"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Our safety case is not perfect. Realistically no safety case applied to biology really can be. Since the scope of the iGEM project is limited due to time constraints, experimental results that validate the safety of systems in simulated environments&nbsp;may be hard to come by. In software engineering, when safety arguments are not fully developed, it is common practice to indicate this in the diagram with a diamond following any claim that cannot be supported with sufficient evidence.</span></p>
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 
</section>
 
</section>
  

Revision as of 05:50, 19 October 2016

<!DOCTYPE HTML> Elements - Solid State by HTML5 UP

image

Our Safety Case


The safety case we created will ideally serve as a model for other iGEM teams and set the precedent of how safety cases can be used as a safety platform for the iGEM competition.

The scope of our safety case is limited to the serA kill switch.

Identified Environmental Hazards:

  • Bacterial Conjugation
  • Accidental Release
  • Natural Migration
  • Decomposition of biomass from dead E. coli cells
  • Gene products - serA
  • Reliability of the BioBricks

*Further develop the above


Insert Safety Case Diagram Here


Click here to view the safety case in a text format 


*Briefly describe arguments in the safety case.


Our safety case is not perfect. Realistically no safety case applied to biology really can be. Since the scope of the iGEM project is limited due to time constraints, experimental results that validate the safety of systems in simulated environments may be hard to come by. In software engineering, when safety arguments are not fully developed, it is common practice to indicate this in the diagram with a diamond following any claim that cannot be supported with sufficient evidence.