Team:Concordia/Safety

• 
• OUR TEAM
  • Team Members
  • Attributions
  • Contact Us
• PROJECT
  • Description
  • Lactococcus Lactis
  • Scaffold
  • Food Intolerances
  • Prototype Pathway
• RESULTS
  • Results of Cloning
  • Results of Testing
  • Future Work
• WET LAB
  • Notebook
• PARTS
  • Team Parts
• POLICIES
  • Human Practices
  • Outreach
  • Collaborations
  • Safety

Safety

For lab work to be performed safely and effectively, it is crucial to implement and follow proper safety protocols. The lives of the researchers outweigh the research itself; thus an open door policy was established among the team. This policy established that when a colleague has little to no experience with a certain method and/or machinery, they must refrain from performing the work unaccompanied and instead they should contact someone within our communal lab to seek assistance. If after such aid, the individual does not feel confident to perform the procedure, they should assign another team member who is more experienced with the lab technique to carry it out.

The importance of proper safety policy and training was established and discussed among the group, and so it was required that every team member undertake Concordia University’s seminars on Biosafety, WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System), and Waste Disposal as administered by the University’s Environmental Health and Safety Office. The team members were required to pass a knowledge exam after each seminar and were given a certificate, proving their competency.

A lab manual for the 2015 iGEM Concordia team was prepared by graduate students in Concordia’s Biology and Biochemistry departments to aid and guide the University’s iGEM team’s wet lab work and project design. The iGEM Concordia 2015 team also underwent an intensive week-long training in the lab where all the theory from the manual was put to practical use, as the team was taught various molecular biology lab techniques under the tutelage of the graduate student advisors. This training insured that every team member was at the same level of lab training and may dutifully and properly carry out lab work.

During experimental design and brainstorming sessions, the team discussed the feasibility and safety of projects. The different project ideas were evaluated according to certain factors such as: the amount of training required, the type of organism used, the biosafety level of the lab required for such an experiment, and the materials needed. Our project Scaffococcus was deemed to not only interest all of us but to also be feasible to undertake when considering these factors. We were able to execute the project following biosafety regulations under one of the University’s level 1 labs. Lab training in molecular biology at the basic level with some specialized techniques was sufficient for the project, and experts in the field were readily available at the department for further training and mentoring. Furthermore, our model bacteria L. lactis is a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) organism, and other organisms and genes used are determined to be safe under biosafety level 1 provisions.

Training

As mentioned previously, the majority of the team’s training focused on safety and lab techniques. However as iGEM is undertaken by a team, the students were trained in management and planning by District 3, an innovation center affiliated with Concordia University. This training involved utilizing SCRUM, a unique management and innovation process that is used worldwide by many big businesses. The iGEM team was taught how to brainstorm and communicate effectively, efficiently, and openly, to facilitate project work in a large team.