Difference between revisions of "Team:SCAU-China/Safety"

The biological safety of our laboratory is classified as level 1. All of the microbes and other biological samples that we needed in the project take extremely low risks to the human healthy and environments. In addition, handling, storage and disposal of biological and chemical wasted during our project strictly follow the university chemical safety policy and guideline. All of the team members took necessary safety course and get sufficient training before starting working in the lab. Food and drinks are also strongly prohibited inside the laboratory.

All of the team members had to take safety courses including general safety, chemical safety and biological safety which were provided by the university before getting into the lab. After fulfilling the requirements of the safety courses, a hands-on experimental training course of cell and molecular biology were further provided to the team to fully cover the detailed and specific safety regulations regarding to the project. The topics in our safety training are summarized as below:

1. General operations:

a. General chemical safety and policy of handling toxic chemicals (e.g. phenol and chloroform).

b. General electrical safety and guidelines for the operation of equipment and facilities.

c. Fire safety.

d. Emergent measurement and treatments under critical conditions (e.g. tackle fire, electric leakage and negligent wounds).

e. Emergent evacuation protocol (e.g. fire alarm).

f. Safe handling and disposal of sharps (e.g. needles and broken glasses).

2. Biological operations:

a. Basic techniques of molecular cloning and gene manipulation.

b. Handling protocol of transgenic and biohazard samples.

c. Health and safety protection in the lab.

d. Bio-waste disposal protocol.

Rules:

We had a teacher, professor Huang, as our supervisors to ensure our operation correctness preventing safety problems. Each of our team members had at least been working in a lab for a half year month and received biosafety training. The biosafety guidelines of our lab can be describe as follows:

1.Always remember the rules. New staffs should be well trained in rules of safety and experimental operations, and pass the experiment-test before performing experiments themselves.

2.Never drink or eat in the lab. We have a rest room and every staff can drink or eat there. And please also remember never taste or smell unknown chemicals in the lab.

3.Always dress appropriately. Each staff should be equipped with personal safety equipment to avoid direct contact with the pathogenic microorganism or toxic chemicals.

4.Always distinguish between contaminated and safe areas. Remember wear gloves before work in contaminated areas and never bring the instruments in the contaminated area out of there.

5.Always dispose of chemicals properly. Make sure the chemicals we used are collected in the recycling tank. We can't to pour anything down the drain that could potentially infect our drinking water.

6.Always remember the biosafety. One person at least in each laboratory should take charge of biosafety and establish a continuous biosafety training program.

7.Always handle emergency properly. Laboratories should establish emergency handling procedures and have routine inspection for all of the equipment.

9.Never afraid to ask question. If one person has any question about experiments design, chemical using or equipment operation, remember to ask the teacher for help before you start your experiments.

All of the chemicals and solutions that were used in the experiments of our project were well labeled with their MSDS information stored in the lab. It is always necessary for us to put on the gloves, lab coat and eye goggles during the handling of the chemicals in the lab and disposal the reagents in a proper way.

1. General chemicals:

a. Ethanol: Put on your lab coat and eye protectors, use it in a ventilated area and keep it away from fire.

b. Sodium acetate: Use it in a fume hood and avoid contact with the skin and eyes.

2. Environmental toxic chemicals:

a. Phenol: Use it in ventilated hood and put on the gloves and mask. Disposal the phenol in the organic reagents container.

b. Chloroform: Use it with gloves, and disposal it in the organic reagents container.

c. Ethidium bromide (EB): Treated EB gel with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) before disposal.

Each laboratory in our school has organic reagent containers. All of the organic reagents were placed in containers that are stored in a ventilated storage cabinet or an operating fume hood after being used. A waste disposal tag would be attached to the container with a list of the container's contents. Properly tagged waste containers would be periodically removed to the company responsible for chemical waste treatment.

1. Centrifuge: Balance the weight of the samples before start the centrifuge.

2. Blue Gel cutting machine: Look the gel through the filter in order to protect your eyes.

3. ULT freezer: Wear the gloves to prevent frostbite when removing items from the freezer,

4. Microwave oven: Wear Microwave oven gloves to prevent scalding.

The chassis biology that we used belongs to the P1 level according to the classification of biosafety.

1. E.coli strains: We mainly used two types of E.coli strains: DH5α and DH10B for the molecular cloning. They have been widely used for gene cloning in many labs across the world for years and proven non-pathogenic. It has been shown that they are barely toxic to researchers when handled properly. Moreover, we have participated in the biological safety course provided by our university and been well trained for handling the E.coli safely.

2. Acetobacter xylinum and Cyanobacteria: (Synechocystis sp.PCC6803 and Microcoleus vaginatus) are human and environmental safe microorganisms. In addition, they were strictly cultured and handled within the laboratory.

3. This year, according to the official requirements of iGEM, GMOs are not allowed to be released into the environment. Therefore our transgenic cyanobacteria will only be restricted within the laboratory.

4. All organisms were sterilized to inactive their biological properties prior to being discarded.