EcoGenoRisk: The Development of a Computational Risk Assessment Tool for Synthetic Biology

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/w6634532b

Abstract

EcoGenoRisk is a computational risk assessment tool designed to evaluate the potential environmental risks posed by synthetic organisms. Its HazID component assesses risk by evaluating genetic similarity to the present genomes and potential impacts on the ecosystem. Synthetic organism test cases were created to evaluate the tool, and the outputs were analyzed to determine algorithm sensitivity to genetic variability. Although the tool was effective in assessing synthetic organism risk, limitations, and vulnerabilities, such as large variability in scoring for genetically mildly different genomes and reliance on databases with update latencies were identified. Overall, EcoGenoRisk is a valuable tool for evaluating the environmental risks associated with synthetic organisms, but further improvements and validation studies are necessary for real-world applications.

Creator