Team:SF Bay Area DIYBio/Safety

• TEAM
• PROJECT
  • Description
  • Experiments & Protocols
  • Results
  • Design
• PARTS
  • Team Parts
  • Basic Parts
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• NOTEBOOK
• ATTRIBUTIONS
• COLLAB
• PRACTICES
• SAFETY

Safety in iGEM

Lab safety considerations for this project

Team members have received safety training instruction relevant to specific experiments. Both BioCurious and Counter Culture Labs have specific multi-person biosafety teams. One of the team advisors, Patrik D’haeseleer, is on the safety team for both labs and has briefed both teams on the project. Both labs strictly meet the guidelines for BSL-1.

E. coli (lab strains that are not harmful to humans) will be modified by adding Anabaena pigment genes and antibiotic resistance genes. The organism will also be encouraged to mutate by addition of error prone DNA repair genes. All organisms will be sterilized before disposal. In addition, extra precautions were taken to protect our team from exposure to UV light, including physical barriers surrounding our experiment, as well as safety googles and lab coats. All biological waste is disposed of after bleach sterilization.A safety precaution we have put in place to make sure our project stays contained is that only plasmids will be allowed to leave the lab and be transported from one location to the other – no live bacteria or purified mycosporine at this stage. As we work on the project we continue to address safety considerations and ensure that the experiments and work is done with best lab practices.

Safety of UV Light in the Lab

Aren’t you burning your retinas, working with that much UV light?”

Our lamps only produce wavelengths found in natural sunlight - no UVC! In addition, there is a strong visible light component; this acts as a built-in safety warning. The overall intensity is 1/10th lower than walking in bright sunlight. Additionally, all the UV exposure work is done inside the biosafety cabinet, behind a layer of glass. Turning on the germicidal UV lamp built into the biosafety cabinet, or staring into a gel illuminator is more dangerous than the UVA/UVB lamps we are working with!