Team:TCU Taiwan/Safety/overview


1.About Our Lab
What is the Safety Level of your lab?
We have several different lab spaces with different Safety Levels
(We do our experiment of Staphylococcus aureus in a level 2 (moderate risk) lab and use E.coli in a level 1 (low risk) lab.)
Which work areas do you use to handle biological materials?
1. Open bench
2. Biosafety cabinet / laminar flow hood
3.Chemical fume hood
Who is responsible for the safety of biology labs at your institution? What are the guidelines for laboratory biosafety?
Our biosafety level 1 of biology labs is responsible by our instructor, Shun-Ping Huang. Our biosafety level 2 of biology labs is responsible by our instructor, Kai Chih Chang. Our guidelines is follow the law in our country, and you can see about that in the next question.


2.Local Rules and Regulations
In your country /region, what are the laws and regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories?
Our country has the law that govern biosafety in research laboratories. This law is from Centers for Disease Control, Taiwan, and it has a lot of sections, laboratories safety rules, biosafety rules, safety of infectious biological material, protective equipment rules and the rules of biotoxin. We have already detailed read these rules, and we will do our experiment according them. Centers for Disease Control,Taiwan


3.Safety Training

We have already received safety training.
1) Universal lab safety rules: wearing lab coat, glasses and rubber gloves, washing hands, keeping work area uncluttered, etc.
2) Know the location of fire extinguisher, eyewash station, chemical spill kits and else
3) First aid lesson
4) Help yourself: memorizing emergency safety telephone number.
5) Use laminar flow to do the experiment of biosafety Level 2.
This is escape routes of our laboratory building. This is Emergency notification flowchart of our biosafety level 1 lab. This is Emergency notification flowchart of our biosafety level 2 lab.


4.The Organisms and Parts


Species name (including strain) Risk Group Risk Group Source Disease risk to humans? How did you acquire it? How will you use it?
E. coli DH5α Level 1 WHO do not cause disease in healthy adult humans. bought from yeastern Competent cell for our plasmid
Staphylococcus aureus
(ATCC number: 25923)		 Level 2 WHO Cause the infection of wound, and make wound healing more difficult Acquired from another lab in our school disinfect test
Squamous epithelial cells
(HaCat)		 Level 1 WHO do not cause disease in healthy adult humans. Acquired from another lab in our school wound healing test
Dermal microvascular
endothelium cells
(ATCC number: CRL-3243)		 Level 1 WHO do not cause disease in healthy adult humans. Acquired from another lab in our school wound healing test
NMRI mice Level 1 WHO do not cause disease in healthy adult humans. Acquired from another lab in our school wound healing test


5.Risks of Our Project
Risks to the safety and health of team members, or other people working in the lab:
 Some reagents we used are poison for human. Such as EtBr, chloroform, isopropanol, etc. To prevent their harm, we wear rubber gloves, lab coat and used chemical hood when using them.

Risks to the safety and health of the general public:
 Our antimicrobial peptides, Signferin is from Crinia signifera, and Epinecidin-1 is from Epinephelus coioides. We use E.coli to synthesizes the peptide. The antimicrobial peptides will be applied to open wounds or burns, the small peptides might induce allergic reactions in some individuals. To reduce this risk, allergic test can be preformed prior to the application of the deressing.

Risks to the environment:
 We modified E.coli to produce antimicrobial peptides, if these E.coli are released to environment, they might cause genetic pollution. To prevent this problem, we disposal our waste according the rule of our university.



             
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Contact us
 tcutaiwan@gmail.com
No.701, Sec. 3, Zhongyang Rd. Hualien 97004, Taiwan