Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices

INTERESTS

I am a contemporary artist interested in biomaterials, DNA and new technologies.

Have not experimented with bacterial pigments so thought of using the following as a starting point:

Bacillus species (orange/yellow)
Serratia marcescens (red/pink)
Environmental isolates from soil

Firstly, in growing them myself (which I am new to), as well as mechanotransduction experiments with sounds and vibrations; having the bacteria’s pigment respond to sounds and vibrations. Connecting mechanosensitive channels to pigment gene expression.

If possible, explore the possibilities of UV-protective, antimicrobial, colored bioplastic material or packaging using bacterial pigments in a seaweed matrix, and build on what has been done to amplify natural pigment production through gene cloning. Combining bacterial pigments directly with seaweed‑based bioplastic matrices (like carrageenan or alginate) for UV‑protection and antimicrobial function.

Further experiments,looking at creating hybrid strains.

Bio-Art Ethics & Policy Framework

I looked at governance and policy from an artist’s, non-science public, point of view, as well as the fact that in my usage case, the bacterial samples may be presented to the public in a gallery setting.

Primary Goal: Ensure Safe & Responsible Use of Engineered Organisms in Artistic Practice

Secondary Goal: Maintain Public Trust in Bio-Art While Enabling Innovation

Three Governance Actions

Action 1: Tiered Institutional Approval System Highlighting the roles of Biosafety Committees, Art Institutions, and Artists.Actor 1 (Biosafety Committees),Actor 2 (Art Institutions),Actor 3 (Artists).

Action 2: Open-Source Documentation Standard & Community Vetting Outlining the purpose of shared safety standards and the involvement of Artists, Scientists, and the Community. Purpose: Currently, bio-art practitioners work in isolation without shared safety standards, Actor 1 (Artists & Scientists), Actor 2 (Community.

Action 3: Technical Safety Infrastructure & Insurance Product Addressing artist liability through the collaboration of Engineers, Certification Bodies, and Artists.Purpose: Currently, artists mostly bear full liability for bio-art installations. Actor 1 (Engineers/Companies), Actor 2 (Certification Bodies), Actor 3 (artist)

Risk Assessment Matrix

Scoring Matrix Action 1 (Tiered Institutional Approval) scores best on biosecurity and lab safety prevention, as a formal approval system is the most direct way to stop unsafe practices before they happen. It is moderately feasible but places a higher burden on stakeholders and could slow research. Action 2 (Open-Source Documentation Standard) scores best overall, performing well across biosecurity response, feasibility, cost minimization, and promoting constructive applications, making it the strongest all-round option. Action 3 (Technical Safety Infrastructure and Insurance) scores weakest on feasibility and cost, as it requires significant infrastructure investment and places the heaviest financial burden on individual artists, though it offers some environmental protection benefits. Overall, Action 2 is the clear leader, Action 1 provides strong institutional backup, and Action 3 is a longer-term aspiration.

Prioritization and Recommendation I would prioritize Action 2 (Open-Source Documentation Standard) combined with Action 1 (Tiered Institutional Approval). Open-source standards score best across nearly all goals and are low-cost and immediately feasible for artists and community bio-labs. Tiered approval adds necessary oversight for public-facing installations. The main trade-off is that Action 2 relies on voluntary community participation, which may be inconsistent. Action 3 (insurance) is the least feasible in the short term and places the highest burden on individual artists, so it is treated as a longer-term goal. My recommendation is directed at iGEM and community biology organisations, who could draft and promote the open-source standard without requiring regulatory approval.

Ethical Reflection Working with living pigment-producing bacteria in a gallery context raised new questions for me about consent and exposure: unlike a lab, gallery visitors have not opted into proximity to engineered organisms. This highlighted a gap in current governance, as bio-art largely falls outside both lab safety regulation and public health frameworks. A potential governance response would be a simple public-disclosure requirement for any bio-art installation using living organisms, similar to ingredient labeling, so that audiences can make informed decisions about their proximity to the work.

Week 2 Lecture Prep

Prof. Jacobson: Question 1 Polymerase Error Rate DNA polymerase has an error rate of about 1 in 10^{6 bases. The human genome is roughly 3 billion base pairs, meaning uncorrected replication would produce thousands of errors per copy. Biology addresses this with proofreading exonucleases built into the polymerase, plus a separate mismatch repair system, bringing the effective error rate down to around 1 in 10}9.

Prof. Jacobson: Question 2 Coding for a Human Protein Because the genetic code is redundant, the average human protein of ~1,000 amino acids can theoretically be encoded by an astronomically large number of different DNA sequences. In practice most alternatives do not work well because cells have codon usage biases (some codons are translated faster or slower), mRNA secondary structures can block translation, and certain sequences trigger mRNA degradation.

Dr. LeProust: Question 1 Most Common Oligo Synthesis Method The most commonly used method is solid-phase phosphoramidite chemistry, in which nucleotides are added one at a time to a growing chain attached to a solid support.

Dr. LeProust: Question 2 Why Oligos Are Hard to Make Beyond 200 nt Each coupling step is not 100% efficient (around 98-99%), so errors accumulate with every added base. Beyond ~200 nt the fraction of full-length, correct molecules becomes too low to be practically useful.

Dr. LeProust: Question 3 Why You Cannot Make a 2,000 bp Gene via Direct Oligo Synthesis Direct synthesis produces a pool of short, error-prone oligos. A 2,000 bp gene requires assembling many overlapping oligos, and errors in individual oligos get incorporated into the final product. The assembly process can also introduce chimeras (incorrectly joined fragments), making a correct 2,000 bp product impractical without additional error-correction steps.

Prof. Church: Question 1 The 10 Essential Amino Acids and the Lysine Contingency The 10 essential amino acids that animals cannot synthesise are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine, and arginine (conditionally essential). The Lysine Contingency refers to engineering a dependency on an unnatural amino acid as a biocontainment strategy. Knowing that lysine is already essential and must come from diet, it seems plausible to replace that dependency with a synthetic molecule unavailable in the wild, which would be a practical and minimally invasive form of genetic containment.

Required Readings

Course policies and biosafety guidelines from HTGAA Spring 2026 syllabus
Institutional biosafety protocols for bio-art installations

Additional Resources

Bio-art ethics and safety protocols literature
Gallery biosafety requirements for living organism exhibitions
Insurance and liability frameworks for bio-art practitioners

Project Context

Research focus: Bacterial pigment production (Serratia marcescens, Bacillus species)
Applications: Mechanotransduction experiments, UV-protective bioplastic materials, seaweed matrix integration
Public engagement: Gallery presentation considerations

AI Assistance

Manus AI - Governance framework visualization
- Date(s) used: February 2026
- Tasks: Generated visual representations of bio-art governance framework and risk assessment matrix based on author’s policy framework

Acknowledgments

HTGAA instructors for guidance on bio-art policy frameworks
Course TAs for biosafety protocol clarification