About our lab

Material used:
We use open benches and Laminar flow hoods / biosafety cabinets with open fronts to handle biological materials.
We handle cancerogenous materials such as ethidium bromide or polyacrylamide under separate fume hoods. Also acidic and basic solutions are handeled behind fume hoods. All radioactive materials or methods are located in a separate laboratory in the basement.
We also have a separate room for RNA work.

Protection:
For protecting ourselves while doing lab chores, we use full face shields during gel excision or any work that involves longer exposure to UV radiation. We certainly use nitril gloves for handling any ethidium bromide and polyacrylamide contaminated materials. Safety glasses are used, especially if dangerous materials like acids, bases and liquid nitrogene are handeled or if there is anything that can splash like at the AKTA. When using -80°C freezers we use isolated gloves.
The laboratory safety training requirements of the Technical University Berlin can be found here or here (BG RCI).

All Team members received a safety briefing from a faculty member.

Disposal:
We collect biological waste in big containers within the lab and autoclave it later. The autoclaved waste is then taken care of by the institute. Contaminated and non-contaminated broken glasware is collected separately. There is also a separate waste for cancerogenous and environmentally hazardous waste like ethidium bromide gels etc.

Biosafety guidelines of the Technical University Berlin:
The Institutional Biosafety Officer (BSO) is responsible for ensuring that laboratories are working safetly with biohazardous materials. This includes the periodic inspection of laboratories, developing emergency plans for handling spills and accidents and investigating laboratory accidents involving biohazardous materials. The BSO also provides technical consultation for researchers on conducting risk assessments, safety practices, and security. Environmental Health and Safety provides services necessary for biological research. These services include biomedical waste disposal, autoclave quality assurance, biosafety cabinet certification, biosafety inspections, training and emergency response. Know the hazards associated with the biological materials and procedures used within the laboratories. Follow approved lab procedures and safety guidelines. Know the emergency procedures. Complete all required training before conducting any lab activity. Utilize all required Personal Protective Equipment. Do not work alone in the laboratory.

German regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories:
http://www.gmo-safety.eu/
http://www.gmo-safety.eu/links.html
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/gmfood/qanda_en.pdf
http://www.baua.de/nn_15226/de/Themen-von-A-Z/Biologische-Arbeitsstoffe/TRBA/pdf/TRBA-466.pdf


What are the risks?
One very positive aspect of our Enzymatic Flagellulose is that it does not consist of any microorganisms, but of their products or parts. Our modular filter is biocompatible, which means it is environmentally friendly — our product should not affect the environment negatively, nor should it pose a threat to humans since no dangerous compounds are involved. One negative and environmentally harmful aspect might occur during the degradation of microplastics. Since many toxic compounds attach to these particles, the degradation process might set them free at high levels. Also the plastic compounds themselves could turn into environmentally harmful compounds while degradation takes place. But another good point is that it is made of natural products that can be degraded by using the right enzymes and reactions. We only use harmless microorganisms to produce our modules, meaning the microorganisms aren’t pathogenic but rather belong to the natural flora of human bodies.

One major risk might be that the enzymes do not degrade the plastic into biodegradable compounds but rather just into even smaller pieces of particles. This would negatively affect the current situation even more. As it is already problematic, that the particles are too small to filter them out of the wastewater treatment plant or the oceans, it will be even more problematic if they turn into smaller pieces. Then, it definitely will be extremely hard to find a solution for this problem.

As we only have studied the cutinase so far, we can only say that one compound definitely can be utilized by several organisms. The harmfulness of the other degraded compound has not been researched yet. But even high concentrations of ethylene glycol might be toxic to E. coli as well as to vertebrates.

Our Enzymatic Flagellulose might also unwantedly degrade some other components during the wastewater treatment. Since we cannot possibly know what it might attack, this is an uncertain risk factor. Richard Feyman says “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” But do I understand what I can create? (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Meyer) Also, the cellulose might be a habitat for bacteria and should be examined about the cultivation of pathogens on it.

We also have to examine whether the degraded compounds of microplastics (e.g. ethylene glycol) might inhibit other biological reactions in the wastewater treatment process. Since many different bacteria are used in the treatment for various purposes, it is easily possible to co- cultivate these bacteria with our product in a batch reactor to determine the effects. Other possible risks that we see are societal. Though our filter helps to filter microplastics, it does not make up for the excessive plastic consumption. It is thought to be a short-time solution for the environmental pollution with plastic. We are afraid that the people might rest on this and start consuming plastic even more recklessly, since they know it will be biodegraded anyway.