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Improving Biocontainment with Synthetic Biology: Beyond Physical Containment

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Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology Protocols

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Abstract

Genetically engineered organisms are per se subject to a biosafety risk assessment to define whether the resulting organism is safe for humans and the environment, either for contained use or environmental release. Contained use currently means physical containment and allows for a less strict assessment compared to environmental release. With developments in synthetic biology, we are currently witnessing the evolution of different forms of nonphysical containment enabled by sophisticated forms of genetic engineering, genome recoding, and xenobiology. Design and implementation of cells that use advanced suicide circuits, different genetic codes, alternative nucleic acids, amino acids, etc., will allow for a semantic or informational containment restricting and possibly eliminating horizontal gene flow with natural species. Here, we describe the scientific advances in this field and map the different approaches to design safe xeno-organisms. Finally, we address the questions that will have to be answered when semantic biocontainment systems become a reality.

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Acknowledgments

Author acknowledges the financial support of the EC-FP7 project METACODE (EC Grant No. 289572), and MS acknowledges the financial support of the EC-FP7 project ST-FLOW (EC Grant No. 289326).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Assessment, Biofaction KG, Kundmanngasse 39/12, Vienna, Austria

    Markus Schmidt & Lei Pei

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  1. Markus Schmidt
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  2. Lei Pei
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Correspondence to Markus Schmidt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Essex Dept. Biological Sciences, Colchester, Essex, United Kingdom

    Terry J. McGenity

  2. Institute of Microbiology, Technical University Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Kenneth N. Timmis

  3. Department of Biology, University of the Balearic Islands and Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, UIB-CSIC), Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Balbina Nogales

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Schmidt, M., Pei, L. (2015). Improving Biocontainment with Synthetic Biology: Beyond Physical Containment. In: McGenity, T., Timmis, K., Nogales, B. (eds) Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology Protocols . Springer Protocols Handbooks. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/8623_2015_90

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/8623_2015_90

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-50430-7

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