Template:Usafa HOME Click to go HOME Project Description Design Measurement Model Hardware Entrepreneurship Safety Results Results Demonstrate Future HP Human Practice Public Engagement Collaboration OMG Game Room Parts Parts Improvement Team Team Attributions Notebook Notebook Protocols Awards Awards Criteria > SAFETY Describe the goal of your project: what is your engineered organism supposed to do? Please include specific technical details and names of important parts. Our bacteria will be engineered to glow with GFP or RFP in the presence of PFOA and PFOS using shotgun promoters, prmA promoter, or aptamers. In addition, our team will use per-oxidase activity and existing degradation properties to degrade PFOA and PFOS. This will allow for cheaper detection and degradation. We will be focused on using bacteria that have increased expression when exposed to PFOA and finding new bacteria and chemical bonds that will help with detection. Our degradation methods will use per-oxidase activity found within the plants of the mustard family along with samples of contaminated soils to find natural degradation methods. Which chemicals are you using in your project that might be hazardous? Carcinogens Mutagens Ethidium Bromide What risks could arise from these experiments? Various degradation products are possible, and our team hopes to investigate them as our project continues. Any time PFOA and PFOS are utilized in the lab, PPE is worn and worked in under the biological cabinet to minimize exposure. As such we minimize any potential risks from these experiments What safety, security, or ethical risks would be involved with such a use? We hope that our project can be made into a tool that can detect PFOA and PFOS as part of a test in regular water sampling used in AF bases. We do not expect our bacteria to escape, as a future product would contain a kill mechanism or to prevent this. Additionally, we hope to create a mechanism for PFOA and PFOS degradation so that the technology can be safely implemented into a bioreactor such as water treatment plants. In both cases, significant safety concerns would be addressed and controlled. How will the rules, training, containment and other procedures and practices help to manage any of the risks you identified Team members will always wear gloves when working with any biological or chemical in the lab. We discard liquid bacteria in a bleach container, and solid waste is sterilized by autoclave following manufacturer recommendations for waste removal. We are using non-pathogenic strains that do not cause harm to healthy people in biosafety level 1 spaces. Any BSL 2 organisms are specifically handled in a laminar flow biosafety cabinet. These organisms are pathogenic, although it is extremely unlikely that a healthy adult would contract an infection. However, these organisms are still assumed to be infectious. A check-in form was sent for all BSL 2 organisms.
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Describe the goal of your project: what is your engineered organism supposed to do? Please include specific technical details and names of important parts.
Our bacteria will be engineered to glow with GFP or RFP in the presence of PFOA and PFOS using shotgun promoters, prmA promoter, or aptamers. In addition, our team will use per-oxidase activity and existing degradation properties to degrade PFOA and PFOS. This will allow for cheaper detection and degradation. We will be focused on using bacteria that have increased expression when exposed to PFOA and finding new bacteria and chemical bonds that will help with detection. Our degradation methods will use per-oxidase activity found within the plants of the mustard family along with samples of contaminated soils to find natural degradation methods.
Which chemicals are you using in your project that might be hazardous?
Carcinogens Mutagens Ethidium Bromide
What risks could arise from these experiments?
Various degradation products are possible, and our team hopes to investigate them as our project continues. Any time PFOA and PFOS are utilized in the lab, PPE is worn and worked in under the biological cabinet to minimize exposure. As such we minimize any potential risks from these experiments
What safety, security, or ethical risks would be involved with such a use?
We hope that our project can be made into a tool that can detect PFOA and PFOS as part of a test in regular water sampling used in AF bases. We do not expect our bacteria to escape, as a future product would contain a kill mechanism or to prevent this. Additionally, we hope to create a mechanism for PFOA and PFOS degradation so that the technology can be safely implemented into a bioreactor such as water treatment plants. In both cases, significant safety concerns would be addressed and controlled.
How will the rules, training, containment and other procedures and practices help to manage any of the risks you identified
Team members will always wear gloves when working with any biological or chemical in the lab. We discard liquid bacteria in a bleach container, and solid waste is sterilized by autoclave following manufacturer recommendations for waste removal. We are using non-pathogenic strains that do not cause harm to healthy people in biosafety level 1 spaces. Any BSL 2 organisms are specifically handled in a laminar flow biosafety cabinet. These organisms are pathogenic, although it is extremely unlikely that a healthy adult would contract an infection. However, these organisms are still assumed to be infectious. A check-in form was sent for all BSL 2 organisms.
