Testing the fungal material in the lab can give rise to various unusual safety concerns. One of them is that we had to be absolutely sure that the resulting GMO material was completely dead after the completion of the experiments, preventing undesired occurrences such as the spread of living fungal spores. As indicated by the literature (3), baking of the products and testing their viability afterward could resolve this issue. Specifically, spores needed to be killed at 70° Celsius(3) during an overnight incubation, which we confirmed experimentally. In addition to this, we exposed our fungi to large amounts of gamma radiation (comparable to a dose rate received on Mars). These experiments were performed in a controlled environment at DTU Risø, where the sources were encapsulated in lead, and only raised after the testing room was evacuated. The walls of the testing room were lined with lead, and dosimeters were worn at all times to check the levels of background radiation. In addition to this, we exposed our fungi to large amounts of gamma radiation (comparable to a dose rate received on Mars). These experiments were performed in a controlled environment at DTU Risø, where the sources were encapsulated in lead, and only raised after the testing room was evacuated.

There is really not much to say about the safety procedures used every day in the lab at DTU Byg, which have all the big machines used for testing the mechanical properties of the fungi. We have to be sure to NOT stick our appendages (hands, fingers etc.) into the machine performing the compression tests. It moves very slowly, so it is in principle hard to have any accidents there.