Biosafety | EPFL Graph Search

Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include the conduction of regular reviews of biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect from harmful incidents. Many laboratories handling biohazards employ an ongoing risk management assessment and enforcement process for biosafety. Failures to follow such protocols can lead to increased risk of exposure to biohazards or pathogens. Human error and poor technique contribute to unnecessary exposure and compromise the best safeguards set into place for protection. The international Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety deals primarily with the agricultural definition but many advocacy groups seek to expand it to include post-genetic threats: new molecules, artificial life forms, and even robots which may compete directly in the natural food chain. Biosafety in agriculture, chemistry, medici

A Microfluidic Biodisplay

Sebastian Maerkl, Ekaterina Emilova Petrova, Francesca Volpetti

Synthetically engineered cells are powerful and potentially useful biosensors, but it remains problematic to deploy such systems due to practical difficulties and biosafety concerns. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a microfluidic device that serves as an interface between an engineered cellular system, environment, and user. We created a biodisplay consisting of 768 individually programmable biopixels and demonstrated that it can perform multiplexed, continuous sampling. The biodisplay detected 10 mu g/L sodium-arsenite in tap water using a research grade fluorescent microscope, and reported arsenic contamination down to 20 mu g/L with an easy to interpret "skull and crossbones" symbol detectable with a low-cost USB microscope or by eye. The biodisplay was designed to prevent release of chemical or biological material to avoid environmental contamination. The microfluidic biodisplay thus provides a practical solution for the deployment and application of engineered cellular systems.

American Chemical Society2017

A third-generation lentivirus vector with a conditional packaging system

Didier Trono, Romain Zufferey

Vectors derived from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are highly efficient vehicles for in vivo gene delivery. However, their biosafety is of major concern. Here we exploit the complexity of the HIV genome to provide lentivirus vectors with novel biosafety features. In addition to the structural genes, HIV contains two regulatory genes, tat and rev, that are essential for HIV replication, and four accessory genes that encode critical virulence factors. We previously reported that the HIV type 1 accessory open reading frames are dispensable for efficient gene transduction by a lentivirus vector. We now demonstrate that the requirement for the tat gene can be offset by placing constitutive promoters upstream of the vector transcript. Vectors generated from constructs containing such a chimeric long terminal repeat (LTR) transduced neurons in vivo at very high efficiency, whether or not they were produced in the presence of Tat. When the rev gene was also deleted from the packaging construct, expression of gag and pol was strictly dependent on Rev complementation in trans. By the combined use of a separate nonoverlapping Rev expression plasmid and a 5' LTR chimeric transfer construct, we achieved optimal yields of vector of high transducing efficiency (up to 10(7) transducing units [TU]/ml and 10(4) TU/ng of p24). This third-generation lentivirus vector uses only a fractional set of HIV genes: gag, pol, and rev. Moreover, the HIV-derived constructs, and any recombinant between them, are contingent on upstream elements and trans complementation for expression and thus are nonfunctional outside of the vector producer cells. This split-genome, conditional packaging system is based on existing viral sequences and acts as a built-in device against the generation of productive recombinants. While the actual biosafety of the vector will ultimately be proven in vivo, the improved design presented here should facilitate testing of lentivirus vectors.

American Society for Microbiology1998

Single walled carbon nanotubes as drug delivery vehicles: Targeting doxorubicin to tumors

Paul Joseph Dyson, Zhaofu Fei

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are emerging as promising delivery vehicles for cancer diagnostics and chemotherapies due to their unique properties, including, remarkable cell membrane penetrability, high drug-carrying capacities, pH-dependent therapeutic unloading, prolonged circulating times and intrinsic fluorescent, photothermal, photoacoustic and Raman properties. In this leading opinion paper, we systemically discuss and evaluate the relationship of the biological safety of SWNTs with their physicochemical properties such as their length, purity, agglomeration state, concentration and surface functionalization. Other relevant issues, including the cellular uptake mechanism, biodistribution and metabolism of SWNTs are also reviewed. The design and preparation of SWNT-based drug delivery systems (DDSs) and their pharmacokinetic, cancer targeting and therapeutic properties both in vitro and in vivo are highlighted. Future opportunities and challenges of SWNT-based DDSs are also discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2012

A third-generation lentivirus vector with a conditional packaging system

Didier Trono, Romain Zufferey

American Society for Microbiology1998