Due to the potential safety risk posed when working with viruses, safety was one of our foremost concerns during our research. One safety measure taken was to ensure the bacteriophage we used in our system was on the iGEM White List. Significant consideration was put into picking the bacteriophage that we would use in our system. Ultimately, we landed on the use of the lambda phage due to its high base pair count, adaptability to inclusion of our system, and additional safety benefits. The primary safety benefit of lambda phages is their possession of specific binding motifs that direct their virulence to specific organisms, which are specified by the motif itself. This means that if we synthesized a modified lambda phage transferring expression of our Craspase-Runella gasdermin protein, we could also directly target it to infect E. coli and only E. coli.

Other safety measures were taken to make sure that our part did not affect bacteria that positively influence humans and animals, such as enterobacteria, that are important in digestion and metabolism. This safety was ensured by taking care in handling our part and ensuring its in vitro safety to prevent cross-contamination and release into the environment. Different methods can be used to detect bacteriophages in the environment, serving as a safeguard against cross-contamination. One of these methods involves obtaining a sample from the environment (soil, water, sewage, etc.) and mixing it with E coli. so that the phages can infect and lyse the bacteria, making it easier for detection. Another technique involves the use of PCR to amplify and quantify phage DNA, providing precise detection even at low concentrations. Since we were unable to implement our system in real experiments due to time constraints, all these safeguards were not actually used but were planned and thought out before testing were to begin.