Team:Exeter/Safety

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"When genetic engineering was still an emerging science, safety and ethics ended when you left the lab. The old assumption was that scientists didn’t need to worry about issues such as gene drives or other consequences that could arise from releasing GM organisms into the environment, because their research projects would never leave the lab." - Piers Millet



This is no longer the case. iGEM is just one example of how accessible synthetic biology can be, and how widespread GM products are in the world today. The safety measures that iGEM has put in place include the White List for selecting parts and organisms, and a detailed safety form for each team to fill out and update as their work progresses.

In addition to this, we have integrated safety into our project through:
  • COSHH forms - We wrote COSHH forms for all of the experiments we conducted in the lab, and sent COSHH forms to any universities we collaborated with if they were conducting any experiments for us. We created a COSHH form for our perchlorate assay, which we sent along with the protocol to any team which would be carrying out the experiment. Our project required the handling of chlorite (see COSHH form here), which was carried out by our supervisor, Dr Chloe Singleton, because of the toxicity of the chemical.
  • Bioreactor - We took into consideration the legal and biosecurity implications of taking genetically modified bacteria to Mars, which is explained in more detail here. This was considered when designing the bioreactor, and we made sure to plan for any incidents where killing all of the E. coli in the bioreactor was necessary. For example, the UV rays on Mars's surface would kill any bacteria that escaped the bioreactor, while flowing copper alginate beads through it would kill any all bacteria inside.
  • Choosing a chassis - All the organisms and parts used in our project were from risk group one so as to minimise the chances of virulence.
  • Safe lab practice - Before iGEM started, each of us were given a laboratory tour and induction. The tour consisted of lab rules, fire exits, what to do in case of emergancies, and who the first aiders are. Our laboratory is category 2, which required extra safety precautions.

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