Safety
Contents
In the Lab
All of our team members received safety training and lab procedure education before starting any work in the lab. We also had a middle-term safety meeting to ensure our safety protocols were observed. We specifically focused on emergency rules, waste disposal, cleanliness, and the use of any laboratory apparatuses. This was all done in accordance with the instruction of Shanghai Jiaotong University Assets Management Bureau, which is responsible for biological safety matter.
All work carried out followed the biosafety guidelines WS233-2002, which is established by Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, and other related guidelines.
Project safety
The Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 and E. coli strains used are not thought to pose any risk to the safety and health of the general public as they would not be able to compete outside the lab during the experiments.
However,some of the cyanobacteria does contain toxin molecule that is harmful to human being. For this question, we especially consult Prof. Peiming He, who is an experts working on cyanobacteria application from Shanghai Ocean University. He told us that there's no toxin produced by Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 as far as he know.
When we consider this in the aspect of evolution, we cannot predict the possibility that there's an unknown toxin can be produced by PCC6803. Fortunately, seawater desalination is a complicated process. The final process is RO membrane that even can keep small molecule like ions out. Thus, we are confident that the end product will be safe.
Furthermore, the potential of components misusing of our project is limited. It may make it more accessible for the general public or 'DIY Bio' labs to desalinate. But people with malicious intentions might also use our Biobricks to produce toxic proteins or other harmful substances. This, however, is a problem shared by all iGEM and synthetic biology projects and not unique to our work.
Industry safety procedure
As an iGEM project, we shall take responsibility for our safety problem in many ways. In this section, we have to describe our idea about how to produce a safety product water and to treat other sub product properly after all.
Since this is related to process flow, this part is mainly discussed in human practice secession with the combination of lab work. We will briefly introduce the elements inside which ensures the safety.
Safety product water
The safety is ensured with following three steps of process flow. These steps have its own main function as well as safety function to make sure the last product is eligible.
| The sub product it is removing | |
|---|---|
| Cell-water separation | Most of the cyanobacteria, part of bio molecule |
| Pretreatment | The remaining cyanobacteria ,biomolecules and most of the ions |
| RO membrane process | Anything left behind beside water molecule |
Sub product
The main difference of our project and normal desalination process is the bio-mass. As we discussed in HP- cell-water separation, we are considering stabilizing the cells to make the after process easier. Yet, we also look for a way to make use of cyanobacteria when it is only for single use.
In fact, the utilizing of cyanobacteria has been studied long time before. In 1990s, Japan have already successfully utilizing all components of the cyanobacteria, producing 120~180 ton fertilizers and providing profit that cover 30% of its utilizing fees (Hailin,2008). Now, this area includes biofuels, foods and feeds, and fertilizer. The most recent utilizing methods start to focus on extracting important natural components from the cells. The after use of cyanobacteria can be well connected to those area. Even though we are not sure if this will bring other sub product which raise safety concerns, this will be a topic that is far from our project and not be discussed in this secession.
The other sub product is shared in all the desalination industry, brine. The utilizing of brine is a part of the main focus of national strategy in China. Apparently there’s not a very effective way to use it, so most of the plant is discharging it. Yet, this is a general problem shared by all desalination methods and not unique to our work. Therefore, we will not discuss this problem further.
Protocol and index
Supervising is very important during industry process. Testing at every gate will provide a more detail data about how the flow is running and what might go wrong. Especially, improper supervising in water industry will cause massive accidents. Therefore, we also consider some important point and index to detect frequently.
| Test point | Test Item | Reasons and further use of the data |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | GB 3097-1997 | The seawater properties changes during different seasons and months. We cannot change the intake spot to adjust, yet, we certainly can adjust the pretreatment to make sure this doesn’t influence the outcome. |
| Before bio-desalination | Main: CFU Inorganic nitrogen Reactive phosphate |
Bio-process appreciated a rich nutrition environment without any competitive organism. To test how rich the water is will help to adjust the growing stage of cyanobacteria. |
| After cell-water separation | Main: CFU Inorganic nitrogen Reactive phosphate |
This test is to ensure most of the cyanobacteria and biomolecule is removed. |
| Before RO membrane method | GB 5749-2006 | Especially the element which damage the RO membrane |
| Outcome | Boron GB 5749-2006 |
Product check! |
Above, we discussed the safety in four aspects: lab, project, industry, supervising protocols. Some part of our discussion needs to be further established when the project applies to real circumstances.
Reference
Hailin, Y., Kelang, L., Ling, Z., Yang, L. I. U., Ming-bo, D. I. N. G., & Wu, W. A. N. G. (2008). Study on the using of cyanobacteria. Biotechnology, 18(6), 95-98.
