Team:Leiden
During our project, we got into contact with National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. A few years ago, iGEM participants from Leiden have organized a debate together with this institute and representatives from industry. The debate covered the ethical and moral usage of synthetic biology. This year, the event has evolved to a conference. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment challenged us to present our vision on how to make synthetic biology safe for the outside world. We investigated the subject and arrived at the following measures we can implement to make our bacterium safe.
In short, our bacterium is able to convert a toxic substance found in Martian soil into oxygen and harmless chloride. This process can be done chemically, but it is highly explosive. Our bacterium does it via biochemical reduction. We can build in measures, which prevent our bacterium from breaking up the substance when the concentration of oxygen in the air is at a certain value. If this concentration is too high, an explosion is imminent. This is the first way in which we make our bacterium safe. Secondly, one would not want Mars’ surface to be fully covered in bacteria. That is why we decided to build in a killswitch. This introduces a need for a certain substance to survive in the bacterium. When the bacteria find themselves in an area where there is no such substance, they die. This way, the bacteria will only occur in places that we want them to be. Thirdly, we place the bacteria in a confined space. This space is the bioreactor. In combination with the killswitch, this makes it highly unlikely for the bacterium to spread outside. Fourthly, we will deliberately not make our bacterium resistant to Mars’ harsh conditions. We can implement measures to give our bacterium radiation and temperature resistance. We choose not to do so for safety reasons.
We presented these findings, in combination with a definition for safety, in the shape of a short clip. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment was very satisfied, and they invited us to present our findings at the conference “Veilig verder met synthetische biologie” on September 20th.
