Team:Lund/Safety
Safety
General Lab Biosafety
Laboratories and other research facilities at the university are regulated according to the specific safety instructions and procedures of the research center to which they belong - in our case, the department of Pure and Applied Biochemistry at Lund university, located at Kemicentrum. The specific safety guidelines for laboratory work, as well as environmental policies, are available online: Kemicentrum Biosafety Regulations.
Our main workspace is a BSL1 research laboratory belonging to the Gene Group at the department of Pure and Applied Biochemistry. Occasional work was also done in another BSL1 research laboratory at the Division of Applied Microbiology, located in the same research center.
Prior to entering the laboratory to start the wet-lab work, we created a full set of risk assessments for each procedure and chemical that would be used during the project. The risk assessments were all signed off by faculty members at the Division of Pure and Applied Biochemistry at Lund University. Upon entering the laboratory, we were given a thorough introduction to the workstation and safety training focused on general biosafety principles, personal protective equipment (e.g. lab coat, gloves and goggles) and proper biological waste disposal.
Project Safety
In addition to the safety provisions required to work in the lab, it is necessary to consider other aspects related specifically to our project. First of all, we used Escherichia coli as the host organism for our transformations and assays. In general, the strains DH5α and TG1 were used for cloning and BL21 and BL21 (DE3) were used for protein expression. These strains are not likely to pose any risk to human or animal health as they fall under biosafety level 1. In addition, it is very unlikely that the insertion of the genetic material used in the project could generate a change that would make them acquire virulence factors, as it comes from non-virulent organisms. However, it is necessary to consider that releasing genetically modified bacteria could lead to unpredictable effects in the environment due to disruption of the balance. For the aforementioned reason, we took the following measures to ensure that the microorganisms are contained in the lab:
- Disinfecting our work space with 70% ethanol before and after working with microorganisms
- Autoclaving all waste that has been in contact with microorganisms
- Washing our hands before leaving the leaving the lab
- Tie back loose hair
- Not wearing lab coats outside of lab areas
During the project we also handled various chemical compounds with potential harmful effects on health. We worked with GelRed for staining of DNA and with polyacrylamide gels and staining solutions for SDS-PAGE, among other things. Harmful substances such as these were always handled responsibly, i.e. wearing gloves and disposing of them in the designated depositories in the lab. Furthermore, we always used UV-blocking goggles when visualizing electrophoretic gels and cutting bands from agarose gels under UV light illumination.
