Team:Hong Kong HKU/Safety
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SAFE LAB WORK
To ensure the safety of team members and prevent hazardous side effects from our laboratory work, we strictly followed the basic standards of laboratory safety. All of our members were required to attend a lab tour offered by the School of Biomedical Sciences before gaining access to the lab. During the tour, rules and guidelines are reminded and procedures of operating different equipment are demonstrated by the lab technicians. Laboratory sessions were always conducted under the supervision of instructors.
With the concern of contamination, laminar airflow was ensured and safety equipment such as lab coats, surgery masks, and gloves were always worn. Also, since our lab work result in biological waste, the disposal of waste is carefully done under the required standards of lab safety to prevent risks to the environment. We classified the wastes into gel waste, bacterial waste, and the others. Liquid waste such as cell culture and agar plate treated by decontamination with autoclave and was disposed to the sanitary sewer system. For the dye, we do not use any EB throughout the project, but SYBR Safe instead.
SAFE PROJECT DESIGN
In our project, E. coli BL21 (DE3) and E. coli DH10β were used. Both of strain are classified in biosafety level 1 and included in risk group number 1 (low risk). It does not pathogenic in healthy people and also require no additional safety precautions. Yet young, elderly, immunocompromised individuals do have a higher risk of infection. To reduce the risk and minimize contamination of the experiment whether in the laboratory or workshop for the society, we wear lab coat and gloves and wash hands before leaving lab. The waste and contaminated gloves are also sterilized.
Our project design is also about biosafety! For the details, please visit our Project Description and Design page.