Difference between revisions of "Team:UiOslo Norway/Safety"

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<h2>Safety in iGEM</h2>
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<h1>Safety in iGEM</h1>
  
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<p>Please visit <a href="https://2015.igem.org/Safety">the main Safety page</a> to find this year's safety requirements & deadlines, and to learn about safe & responsible research in iGEM.</p>
 
  
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<p>On this page of your wiki, you should write about how you are addressing any safety issues in your project. The wiki is a place where you can <strong>go beyond the questions on the safety forms</strong>, and write about whatever safety topics are most interesting in your project. (You do not need to copy your safety forms onto this wiki page.)</p>
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<h3>Safe Project Design</h3>
  
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<p>We chose <i>E. coli</i> as our chassis organism. The organism is well known, non-pathogenic, easy to grow and easy to work with in the lab. We are containing the transformed bacteria in a closed system, a filter. However, should the transformed bacteria escape to the environment, it is unlikely that they should prove dangerous or harmful. The parts we insert are non-pathogenic and will give the transformed bacteria an advantage only in an environment where methane gas is an important carbon source.</p>
  
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<h4>Safe Project Design</h4>
 
  
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<p>Does your project include any safety features? Have you made certain decisions about the design to reduce risks? Write about them here! For example:</p>
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<h3>Safe Lab Work</h3>
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<p>We are working in a level 2 facility lab. The lab contains an organism that is potentially harmful to humans, namely:</p>
  
 
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<li>Choosing a non-pathogenic chassis</li>
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<li><p>We are careful to work only on our assigned lab bench and to wear gloves when appropriate. </p></li>
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<li>Choosing parts that will not harm humans / animals / plants</li>
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<li><p>We are of course careful not to wear gloves when this is appropriate, such as when we are working on the lab computer.</p></li>
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<li>Substituting safer materials for dangerous materials in a proof-of-concept experiment</li>
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<li><p>We were all given a thorough HSE tour of the lab by the lab engineer, Bård Enger Mathiesen, and were shown all the safety equipment, such as the fire extinguisher, fire blanket, eyewash station, first aid kit, and so on.</p></li>
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<li>Including an "induced lethality" or "kill-switch" device</li>
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<h4>Safe Lab Work</h4>
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<p>Since we are trying to engineer <i>E. coli</i> with the ability to metabolize methane, there was no getting around methane experiments, and the risk associated with this. The primary risk is explosion and fire hazard. Methane can also displace air and be an asphyxiation hazard, but this is highly unlikely to be a problem given that we work in a fume hood. We prevent explosion hazard primarily by working in  fume hood and carefully releasing small amounts of methane through a valve, and releasing methane not into the open air, but into a container.</p>
  
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<p>What safety procedures do you use every day in the lab? Did you perform any unusual experiments, or face any unusual safety issues? Write about them here!</p>
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<p>We made new SOPs based on the University of Oslo (UiO) standard, one for methane incubation and one for methane bubbling through our filter. See attached SOPs. See also attached methane safety data sheet. We also made a general safety scheme, with risk, consequence and countermeasures:</p>
  
 
<h4>Safe Shipment</h4>
 
<h4>Safe Shipment</h4>

Revision as of 18:36, 8 September 2015

Safety in iGEM

Safe Project Design

We chose E. coli as our chassis organism. The organism is well known, non-pathogenic, easy to grow and easy to work with in the lab. We are containing the transformed bacteria in a closed system, a filter. However, should the transformed bacteria escape to the environment, it is unlikely that they should prove dangerous or harmful. The parts we insert are non-pathogenic and will give the transformed bacteria an advantage only in an environment where methane gas is an important carbon source.

Safe Lab Work

We are working in a level 2 facility lab. The lab contains an organism that is potentially harmful to humans, namely:

  • We are careful to work only on our assigned lab bench and to wear gloves when appropriate.

  • We are of course careful not to wear gloves when this is appropriate, such as when we are working on the lab computer.

  • We were all given a thorough HSE tour of the lab by the lab engineer, Bård Enger Mathiesen, and were shown all the safety equipment, such as the fire extinguisher, fire blanket, eyewash station, first aid kit, and so on.

Since we are trying to engineer E. coli with the ability to metabolize methane, there was no getting around methane experiments, and the risk associated with this. The primary risk is explosion and fire hazard. Methane can also displace air and be an asphyxiation hazard, but this is highly unlikely to be a problem given that we work in a fume hood. We prevent explosion hazard primarily by working in fume hood and carefully releasing small amounts of methane through a valve, and releasing methane not into the open air, but into a container.

We made new SOPs based on the University of Oslo (UiO) standard, one for methane incubation and one for methane bubbling through our filter. See attached SOPs. See also attached methane safety data sheet. We also made a general safety scheme, with risk, consequence and countermeasures:

Safe Shipment

Did you face any safety problems in sending your DNA parts to the Registry? How did you solve those problems?