Safety
Working a team of eight people in a laboratory is a very nice experience, very enriching, fun and, above all, it must be very safe. Since the project was raised we were clear that we are a High School team and that the important thing is the protection. Therefore, decisions were made about the design of the project to reduce possible risks to the maximum, how to choose on-pathogenic microorganisms and use all the necessary protective material.
Our project is based on developing a method for the purification of recombinant proteins in plants, simple and profitable, which has been developed with the Carbohydrate Metabolism group (belonging to the CSIC) in its laboratories at the Institute of Agrobiotechnology.
The laboratory where it has been developed the project, has a level of biosafety 1 (low risk). In addition, the organisms with which we work do not present a potential risk.
However, during the entire time we were in the laboratory, we met the following security measures:
Supervised work
At all times we have been supervised by the people in charge of the laboratory, who have been in charge of supervising the actions carried out and guiding us in the appropriate knowledge and techniques.
Before entering the laboratory, we attended mandatory lectures on Health and Biosafety in the laboratory, where they also explained the protocols and actions to follow in case of emergency.
Prevention and safety measures
We receive lab coats (each person with their own gown), safety goggles, respirators and nitrile and / or latex gloves.
We had our own workspace, dedicated to the development of our project; and that we always kept clean and tidy.
To reduce any type of risk, when we worked, we disinfected the Ethanol work area before and after each use.
The laboratory has a biological safety cabinet in which we managed the bacteria to avoid external contamination.
Any waste that we produced was deposited in its corresponding container and processed in the regulatory manner.
In addition, Ethidium Bromide has been replaced in the laboratory by Midori Green, a compound with many fewer risks than the previous one.
Organisms
While designing the project we took into account avoiding many possible biological risks. That is why we decided to work with non-pathogenic organisms, which have no potential risk outside the laboratory, neither for humans, animals or the environment.
These organisms are:
- Escherichia coli (TOP 10)
- Agrobacterium tumefaciens (GV3101)
- Alternaria alternata
In addition to develop our project, we need the following plant species:
- Nicotiana benthamiana
- Arabidopsis thaliana
In conclusion, from the first moment the experts have supervised all the steps in the laboratory. They have a broad experience working whit these organism and they are totally familiar with all experimental procedures used in this project. The organisms that we are going to use in this project have not potential risks outside the lab.
From the first moment all the biosafety rules have been fulfilled.
All the protocols have been made according to good practices, according to the laws and complying with iGEM’s security rules and policies.
For more information, you can visit both the website with igem regulations:
https://2018.igem.org/Safety/Rules
like the white list here: https://2018.igem.org/Safety/White_List.