Safety

iGEM teams follow a high standard of safe and responsible biological engineering. There are three main areas of safety that iGEM teams must attend to: Safe Project Design, Safe Lab Work, and Safe Shipment.

Safe Project Design

Be a responsible engineer!

Learn more about Safe Project Design

Safe Lab Work

Protect yourself from being infected by the organisms you work with!

All biological lab work, even simple experiments, carries some risk to the experimenter. To reduce these risks, iGEM teams should work in properly equipped facilities and use standard lab safety techniques.

Organisms

Microorganisms are classified into four Risk Groups, and biological laboratories are classified into four corresponding Safety Levels. Risk Group 1 contains non-pathogenic organisms like yeast and E. coli K-12. The majority of iGEM teams use only Risk Group 1 organisms. Some teams use Risk Group 2 organisms. The use of Risk Group 3 and 4 organisms is not permitted in iGEM.

RG 1: Low risk -- organisms generally do not cause disease in healthy adult humans.
RG 2: Moderate risk -- organisms cause disease in humans, but the disease is treatable, and it should not present a serious hazard to public health.
RG 3: High risk -- organisms cause serious disease in humans. Treatments and vaccines for the disease are usually available.
RG 4: Extreme risk -- organisms cause deadly disease in humans, and there are no effective treatments or vaccinations.

Parts

Non-Biological Hazards

Learn more about Safe Lab Work

Safe Shipment

Protect your part submissions from delays and blockages! Protect the Registry of Standard Biological Parts!

iGEM teams and the Registry frequently exchange samples of DNA through the mail. Although these shipments are generally not dangerous, they are still governed by national and international laws. iGEM teams should learn how to ship DNA samples safely and legally, and learn which samples should not be shipped.

Learn more about Safe Shipment

Requirements for iGEM Teams

Safety deadlines and forms will be published by the end of February 2015.

Help!

Visit the Learn More about Safety page!

We've collected resources and tutorials to help you.

Contact iGEM HQ!

Email safety AT igem DOT org any time, with any questions you might have! We are friendly and available, and we will do our best to answer your questions quickly. Any team member can ask a question, whether you are a student, a leader, or an advisor. You should not fear that your team will suffer consequences simply because you asked us a question.

Virtual Open Office Hours

At various times during the summer, we will host Virtual Open Office Hours on Skype. Join us to ask questions, discuss concerns, and meet other iGEMers from around the world!

The schedule for Virtual Open Office Hours will be posted later.

You will need Skype to participate.

Click here to get Skype in most countries.
Click here to get Skype in China.
After you install Skype, remember to add kelly_igem to your contact list!

Ask your Neighbors!

iGEM HQ is a good resource for safety, but it is not the only resource. You probably have many safety experts right next door to you! For example:

Your faculty advisor or team leaders
The laboratory manager for the lab where you work
The safety office or Institutional Biosafety Committee at your university/institution
Members of your local or national government

Who is the iGEM Safety Committee?

Marissa Cardwell, MIT Environment, Health, and Safety Office
Peter Carr, MIT Lincoln Laboratories
Kirsten Jacobsen, Public Health Agency of Canada
Tom Knight, Ginkgo BioWorks
Todd Kuiken, Synthetic Biology Project, Woodrow Wilson Center
Claudia Mickelson, MIT Environment, Health, and Safety Office
Piers Millett, Woodrow Wilson Center
Kenneth Oye, MIT Program on Emerging Technologies
Megan Palmer, SynBERC
Anastasia Rogaeva, Public Health Agency of Canada
Samuel Yu, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

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