title: Synthetic biology approaches to biological containment: pre-emptively tackling potential risks.
abstract: Biocontainment comprises any strategy applied to ensure that harmful organisms are confined to controlled laboratory conditions and not allowed to escape into the environment. Genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs), regardless of the nature of the modification and how it was established, have potential human or ecological impact if accidentally leaked or voluntarily released into a natural setting. Although all evidence to date is that GEMs are unable to compete in the environment, the power of synthetic biology to rewrite life requires a pre-emptive strategy to tackle possible unknown risks. Physical containment barriers have proven effective but a number of strategies have been developed to further strengthen biocontainment. Research on complex genetic circuits, lethal genes, alternative nucleic acids, genome recoding and synthetic auxotrophies aim to design more effective routes towards biocontainment. Here, we describe recent advances in synthetic biology that contribute to the ongoing efforts to develop new and improved genetic, semantic, metabolic and mechanistic plans for the containment of GEMs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K. leticia.torres@ucl.ac.uk v.pinheiro@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Leticia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K.
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Csibra
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K.
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gianni
authors.affiliation: Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, U.K. leticia.torres@ucl.ac.uk v.pinheiro@ucl.ac.uk.|Birkbeck, Department of Biological Sciences, University of London, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX, U.K.
authors.forename: Vitor B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Pinheiro
mesh_terms: D003264:Containment of Biohazards / Q000379:methods*; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D016678:Genome; D010957:Plasmids / Q000378:metabolism; D012306:Risk; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods*