Safety/Learn More

Learn More about Safety

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Safe Project Design

Video Tutorials

To learn about biological risk assessment and responsible research, you can watch the two videos below.



These two videos were made available through SynBERC. Videos produced by Terry D. Johnson, based on slides by J. Christopher Anderson, both of UC Berkeley Bioengineering.



Safe Lab Work

General Lab Safety Manuals

  • The WHO Biosafety Manual is available in PDF format, in several languages. Official versions: English, Français, Español, Português, 中文, Русский. Unofficial translations: Italiano, 日本語, Српски / srpski, Tiếng Việt.
  • The NIH Guidelines are a set of United States rules on how to safely work with recombinant or synthetic DNA molecules.
  • The CDC has published Biosafety in Microbial and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL), a comprehensive guide to laboratory safety following U.S. regulations.


Safe Shipment

Why are there laws about shipping DNA?

Packaging and Customs

Genes to Avoid Shipping