SAFETY

There is an interesting equation "S=C₃H₃" when a freshman becomes a member in College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Xiamen University. It was advocated by Prof. Jiaxi Lu, a famous Chinese quantum chemist. C₃H₃ is not a kind of hydrocarbon and "S" is short for scientist. The equation means a scientist needs three qualities: Clear Head, Clever Hand and Clean Habit.

Ⅰ. Safe Project Design

1. What school take to guarantee the safety in the lab?

This year we use the following strains which are all non-virulent and are commonly used in microbiological experiments. What’s more, none of the new BioBrick parts that we constructed raises any safety issues.

Species	Risk Group	Description	Typical Work Area
E. coli (K 12)	1	These organisms do not cause disease in healthy adult humans	Open bench
E. coli (B)	1
DH5α	1
BL21 (DE3)	1

2. To avoid the pollution of the environment

To avoid this potential biological pollution to environment, we gathered all culture fluid and culture medium with bacteria and we processed them together to ensure that none of them leaked from our laboratory through sewers and dustbins. We handled all the biological materials, wastes and equipment strictly following the BSL-1 requirements. All these things that have physically contacted with biological samples were bleached by autoclave before being discarded or reused.

Ⅱ. Safe Lab Work

1. What school takes to guarantee the safety in the lab?

First, School has its own biosafety rules that are regulated by the Ministry of Environment Protection, P. R. China and our institution. And each laboratory safety standards are implemented strictly.

Second, Every students must study the course called “The Experiment Safety” before they start doing the experiment. In the courses, teachers introduce students the matters needing attention and strategies in dealing with the unexpected incidents through various case. Finally, there will be a serious test to make sure that every student has met the requirements of students before they can enter the lab and experimentize.

Third,all laboratories are equipped with safety experimental equipment and relevant person in charge.

2. What special measures we take to guarantee the safety of experimenters in view of the experiments related to iGEM?

Every member of the team has to take the experimental test, which iGEM tutors and postgraduates assigned the topic. Only the one who passes the exam will be allowed to enter the laboratory and start experiments. And there will be a graduate student who gives us a demonstration and help new players to correct the mistakes in the experiment.