Promoting safety in the laboratory while conducting experiments is something that can often times be overlooked, however, it is equally as important to contributing to the success of our project. The Wisconsin Lutheran College iGEM team values the importance of lab safety. Before any new members were allowed to participate in lab work in February, they were introduced to, or given a refresher on, basic lab safety. Basic lab safety techniques such as maintaining clean surfaces, practicing sterile technique, and always wearing gloves and goggles as needed, are some of the core safety habits that many iGEM members learned to utilize not only in the iGEM laboratory but also in other science labs as well. Further safety precautions and lab etiquette included keeping the lab benches free of clutter, properly labeling tubes and broth mixes, and communicating with professors. These techniques not only keep members safe, but it shows respect to others projects that also use these lab spaces and it also reduces contamination in our project which could alter our results.

One may wonder how we can use Escherichia coli and viruses in our project since they are notorious for causing health problems. Luckily, safe lab strains of E.coli and non-infective bacteriophage (viruses which only infect bacteria) proteins can be used in the lab which will still produce the same results in our experiment as if we were using more virulent strains. For our E.coli water testing project, we worked with an E. coli strain and bacteriophage that could not have an effect on us or the environment. This not only kept us safe, but it also maintained the safety of the other professors and students who work in the same lab spaces we do. In addition, it also protects the research of others and the environment. As a result, practicing safety in the laboratory has been one of the first steps we take in order to work towards the success of our project, and it lays down the base work for how we conduct ourselves as researchers. View our iGEM Safety form here.