Safety

General Safety

Safety is a high priority concern for any research scientist, hence before we started our project we ensured safety standards were upheld to ensure our safety and the safety of the those in the community environment by avoiding release. We have also taken care to pick a project that poses minimal biosafety risks even in the event of accidental release from a laboratory.

At the beginning of our project, before we entered the lab, we carefully read and considered our safety. By filling out and signing all the safety forms, as was necessary with a safety level 2 laboratory, we finished the first part of our introduction into iGEM.

Upon arrival in the lab, we were given a short tour and shown where we could locate all essential equipment, we were then instructed in good lab practice and technique by Dagmara Kolak, our lab manager. We ensured that all team members wore lab coats and nitrile gloves at all times, and extra safety equipment was worn where appropriate:

• Whilst visualising GFP with UV light in a dark room, all team members wore UV protection goggles to limit exposure.
• When handling heated materials eg. glassware containing hot agar broth, a heatproof glove was worn.
• After using TAE buffer in the preparation of agarose gels for electrophoresis, nitrile gloves were discarded and replaced with a new pair.
• The regular use of safety goggles was not required, as we did not use sufficiently harmful chemicals according to our lab’s protocol.

The Mezzanine Laboratory

For the duration of our project we worked in the University’s Mezzanine laboratory alongside biosciences researchers of many disciplines and backgrounds. We were given our own lab bench and full access to the departments equipment and materials. The Mezzanine lab is a biosafety level 2 laboratory, which allows pathogenic agents to be used, although they pose ‘moderate hazards to personnel and the environment’. We worked with E.coli for the entirety project, we had to follow strict safety procedures to prevent the release of biomaterial into the environment.

• When leaving the lab, all team members washed their hands thoroughly.
• When a sterile environment was required, a flow hood was used to reduce risk of contamination.
• When handling chemicals that may produce toxic fumes, a fume hood was used to reduce exposure.
• Certain items of equipment require more experienced members of staff to operate them e.g. Autoclave and Liquid nitrogen.
• The Mezzanine lab protocols ensure that all chemicals and biomaterials are appropriately disposed of.

In the lab, there were several stations set up for different procedures, eg. a station to prepare agar gels. This setup helped avoid contamination and ensured our bench didn’t become too cluttered - another aspect of good scientific practice!

Working with E.coli:

During our project we will be working with biosafety level one E.coli, and when modified it will become biosafety level two. When plating the E.coli we use a flow hood to avoid contamination of our cultures, this flow hood contains a butane lamp for flaming bottles, in addition we wiped the inside of the cupboard with ethanol and our gloves using appropriate aseptic technique. Our inoculated plates are handled very carefully when preparing and transporting them, we pour our plates and prepare our antibiotics in a flow hood and wrap the plates in parafilm before transporting them to the cold room. General safety prevents our E.coli leaving the lab at any time except when safely transporting to the cold room in the corridor just outside the main lab.

We are planning on making a cell free system, to do this we have to seriously consider the safety of removing biosafety level two E.coli from a lab environment. Our system would be contained in a test tube into which you would add a sample into the tube, seal and wait, this is relatively low risk because the reaction is contained in a tube with minimal time spent exposed.

Biosafety and our ideas:

Part of our induction into the whole iGEM process was to meet with several academics about their research. During this time we had a open discussion with Greenpeace representatives from the Greenpeace Science Laboratory based at Exeter University. Before we had picked out ideas, we had this meeting to consider the biosafety of our ideas and how we would engage with the public and stakeholders.

We discussed many aspects of safety, including biosafety levels, safety of the environment and community. They brought to our attention areas that we had not yet considered - this prompted us to think more closely about our ideas, how safe they actually were, and how the non-scientist community would respond to our project.