Team:UCLouvain/Safety

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 Safety

How we worked

We were glad to be hosted at the LIBST, Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technologies, more precisely in the BBGM (Biochemistry, Biophysics and Genetics of Microorganisms) lab of our home university: a leading lab in research in Belgium with high safety standards and professional personnel that was alware ready to help us throughout our adventure! The lab is under the supervision of our 3 PIs: Bernard Hallet, Patrice Soumillion and Charles Hachez.

For more information:

LIBST - UCLouvain

Respecting safety standards when working in a laboratory is very important to protect us and the others workers too. During our project, we worked in a L2 safety laboratory. Each team member who worked in the lab received a guided tour by a lab technician and a training to safety standards to follow in a L2 biosafety laboratory.

This level covers laboratories that use sometimes with pathogenic or infections organisms which pose a moderate health hazard. As we worked with biological materials, we learned all we needed to know about waste management, sterilization, personal protective equipment (lab coat, gloves…), hand washing, how to work with BET (ethidium bromide) and all the lab's internal facilities put in place for workers safety such as laminar flow hoods, emergency exits, fire safety, eye showers, pictograms, containment doors… This lab has a room only for centrifuges too and another room only for BET.

Figure 1: Fiona in our academic laboratory.

Figure 2: A laminar flow hood of the L2 lab.

Key words of this laboratory

Figure 3: L2 Laboratory.

• Access restricted
• Containment doors
• Materials are easy to clean, waterproof resistant to acidic and alkaline solutions, organic solvents, disinfectants and others agents used for decontamination.
• Coat hanger for lab coat
• Autoclaves for waste
• Hazardous waste containers
• Pictogram : biological danger
• Biosafety level L2
• Lab coats are only used in the laboratory
• Gloves
• Mechanical pipetting
• Wash hands after work
• Surfaces must be decontaminated after use (70% ethanol)

Thanks once again to: Faculty of Sciences Université catholique de Louvain
Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technologies (LIBST) Biochemistry, Biophysics and Genetics of Microorganisms (BBGM)
Croix du Sud, 4-5, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium