Team:SVCE Chennai/Safety
Safety
Introduction
Laboratories are often recognized with hazards of processing infectious agents. Safety measures were carried out by the team by providing guidelines, engineering controls, management policies and work practices. We followed a high standard of safe and responsible biological engineering. It is one of the primary concerns of the team and we ensured that all the works carried are highly safe. In general, iGEM teams are trying to pursue ambitious projects and reduce risks by using safer substitutes for more dangerous organisms/parts.
Project Safety
Our project which focuses on the production of minicins in which we mainly target gastro intestinal infections and biofilm formation though are mostly caused by hazardous organisms such as Shigella, Clostridium etc., Our team worked on class 2 organisms such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus as model organism to target the same with reduced risks and have a safe project design .
| ORGANISM | RISK GROUP |
|---|---|
| E. coli BL21 | 1 |
| Pseudomonas aeruginosa | 2 |
| Staphylococcus aureus | 2 |
As our college is provided with well equipped class1 and class 2 cabinets ,which made it easier to handle these organisms. Proper bio safety guidelines were also considered for cloning and synthetic biology works .
Lab Safety
We the team members have taken special online Good Microbiological Laboratory Practices before the project was initiated. Though we reduced the risk hazards of the project by working on class 1 & class 2, safety is essential all the time. The lab team concentrates more on the safety of handling organisms and parts used in the project. All the safety cabinets and labs used for the project are well furnished with separate rooms for the cabinets . Safety regarding chemicals used in the project is also considered, especially for Etbr, agarose and other carcinogens which were always handled with gloves. The containment is also well autoclaved and discarded by proper disposables to prevent risks to the environment . All the safety measures followed by the team were guided by our instructors and we have also ensured that the final product of the work produces no risk or reduced risk to the environment and other living organisms.