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GENERAL GUIDELINES

Synthetic biology and biological research in general can provide vastly usable new techniques to improve our quality of living. Nonetheless, one should not forget that biological engineering requires precautionary safety measures. In this context, safety has to be understood on multiple levels.

Firstly, the researcher needs to secure himself from any danger conveyed by what he is working with. Secondly, on a larger scale, society needs to be kept safe from anything that could escape the lab or be released and thereby impose a threat - that is the immanent responsibility of the scientist. Finally, the samples one works with can be sensitive and easily degraded, hence by safety measures, researchers also secure their projects.

Concerning software, the same levels of safety exist: The data entered by researchers need to be protected, misuse of the software of any kind should be prevented and the software itself needs to be secured.

As were both, working with genetically modified organisms and designing a software, all of the above measures need to be thoroughly considered. We therefore here describe the different approaches we took to guarantee safety and thereby laying the basis for having a great summer. Also, we read about the official safety guidelines proposed by the iGEM HQ online. Watch the two videos below for further good instructions on lab safety!