Safety
Safety
Please note that all information on this page is in a draft version.
Please check back often for details.
Safety deadlines and forms will be published by the end of February 2015.
Timeline
Safety deadlines and forms will be published by the end of February 2015.
What is Safety in iGEM?
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!
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.
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 | RG 2 | RG 3 | RG 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description | nonpathogenic | slightly pathogenic | dangerous | OMG DEADLY |
| Examples | E. coli K-12, yeast (S. cerevisiae), Lactobacillus | Most mammalian cell lines | Anthrax | Ebola |
| Appropriate Lab | Safety Level 1 | Safety Level 2 | Safety Level 3 | Safety Level 4 |
| Photo |
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 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.
Where can I find help with safety?
Talk to people at your institution
Talk to us on email or Twitter
Participate in office hours via Skype
Where can I learn more about safety?
Talk to people at your institution
Visit the Learn More about Safety page
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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