Team:Tec-Chihuahua/Safety
Safety
Laboratory Safety, -particularly biosafety-, is an important issue of concern, because it represents the safe handling of pathogenic microorganisms, personal safety and security of microbial goods that can guarantee their use for clinical, research and epidemiological purposes. iGEM Tec-Chihuahua is especially commited with the safety area of the project. We paid attention to all the details in the projects to assure our well being and that of others who may have access to the lab, such as students, profesors, cleaning personnel and visitors; also, the practices to maintain security in our laboratory provides more certainty for better experimental results.
Training
Each member of the team took three online courses about Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity offered by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC):
General Safety for Containment Labs
Incorrect technical and human errors can threaten even the best measures implemented to protect the team. Therefore, what is essential to prevent acquired infections, incidents and accidents in the laboratory is a personal who knows and concerned about safety and how to recognize and combat the dangers of working in a laboratory.
Containment Level 2 Operational Practices
According to the WHO, our laboratory is classified as a Basic Laboratory BSL2 (biosafety level 2); that means it is suitable for working with risk group 2: pathogens that can cause human or animal disease but are unlikely to cause a serious risk to laboratory personnel. The laboratory exposure can cause serious infection, but there are effective preventive and therapeutic measures and the risk of spread is limited.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
As students is very important to know the proper use of PPE, as it is a method of biological control risk that significantly reduces the risk to us and prevents the transport of organisms outside the containment laboratory by clothing. In this course we learn about the correct use of gown, gloves, and eye, face and feet protection.
Here you can see the PHAC web and the certificates that we recived.
Also, we received training in biological safety by ECOSERVICIOS DEL NORTE, a company that is in charge of the biohazard residues generated in the labs of our campus. Here you can see the certificates that we received for completing the course.
Lab Safety
All the experiments of our project were performed following the all the rules in order to make sure that our work is safe, specifically we follow the Laboratory Manual implemented in the Labs of our Campus.
Organisms we use
E. coli
This organism is listed by the American Biological Safety Association as part of the risk group level 2. It is pathogenic in humans and animals, but not in plants. Currently DH5α is most often used for routine cloning applications strain.
Bos taurus (oocytes)
The most common and cheapest way to obtain oocytes is from slaughterhouse ovaries, so there is ample knowledge of the factors affecting the collection of ovaries. That said, the oocytes of slaughtered animals, represent a viable alternative for the production of embryos, wich can be used to basic research and/or practice of other reproductive technologies. It is important to acknowledge that the animals from which the cells of interest are obtained, are treated with respect and are destined for human consumption. The lab work only reached the in vitro maturation of bovine oocytes, not fertilization. The technique to follow can be permormed in a variety of growing conditions depending on the environment in which the in vivo oocytes are. To mention an example, the good management of the incubator, the workspace and the sterile conditions where these are handled must be verified.
Nicotiana tabacum
Transgenic plants expressing genes that confer tolerance to herbicides or resistance to insects is currently the subject of controversy in several parts of the world. The debate revolves around the safety that these plants offer when they are used as food, as well as the long-term ecological consequences of their cultivation. In our case, the specimen that we will use, will not be used for this aim, but to evaluate a new technique of transformation, but still, a risk assessment is needed to verify that the inserted gene doesn´t have any harmful activity such as:
The use of this organism needs careful consideration and following of the rules, restrictions, and requirements for working with GMOs under the law of biosafety of genetically modified organisms issued by the Mexican Government on March 18, 2005.
Forms
For further analysis of our project, you can see here the iGEM forms that we completed
Bibliography
World Health Organization (2004) Laboratory Biosafety Manual. [pdf] Recovered from http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/biosafety/en/Biosafety7.pdf at 08/10/2015
Congreso de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos (2005) Ley de Bioseguridad de Organismos Genéticamente Modificados DOF-18-03-2005. Recovered from http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/LBOGM.pdf at 10/05/2015