Safety is the acutest problem when it comes to genetically modified organism. We figured this problem out from three aspects: Project design, Lab work and Shipment.
Project design
We chose non-pathogenic chassis and parts that would not harm human beings, animals, or plants.
All the chassis organisms we used are E.coli K12, so they all ranked S1 in biosafety-level. The strains we used were DH5α, DH10β, BL21, Top10.
And all the parts we chose were from neither Risk Group 3 nor Risk Group 4.
We can assure that all our chassis and parts would not cause any risks for neither the experimenter nor non-participants, of course with good laboratory practice. Still, we called for experts’opinion on the potential risks comprehensively.
Our instructor, Yan Wang, with particular understanding about our project, thought that the project design met the requirements of safety, for the reason that all our parts were got from Risk Group 1 and were not related to pathogenicity. And he exhorted us that we should pay more attention to biological safety.
Lab work
To protect the experimenters from biotic and abiotic hazards, as well as avoiding genetically modified DNA, organisms, or their products releasing into wild, our project was carried through in a laboratory with high standards of protective equipment.
We also took personal safety precautions to protect ourselves from biotical, physical and chemical hazard, such as wearing gloves，respirator, safety goggles and lab coats.
All the chassis organisms will be sterilized by Autoclaves Sterilizers before being abandoned to prevent the genes from leaking.
To prevent contamination of bacteria and toxins, we used clean benches during making bacterial operations. And a molecular operation area, an ethidium bromide area and a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis area were set for different operations.
Our experimental operation skills and basic safety standard were taught by former iGEMers of OUC-China, Wenqi Li, Yu Wang, Ming Jiang, Tianli Hu and Guang Xu. What’s more, we checked all the equipment and clean up twice a day to run the lab well.
Shipment
To understand the policy better and use the best way to ship DNA, we asked the government departments for helps and advices.
We connected with Qingdao Municipal Government, Qingdao Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, General Administration of Customs, Qingdao Custom District, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of PRC, Shandong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, etc. And we interviewed them and learned more about relevant laws of shipping DNA.
With the long process should be taken before shipping, we got confused and tired. Luckily, we got assistance from Genewiz. They helped us prepare for the documents and transport our plasmids legally. And we found it to be a convenient way for shipment.
See more details in Transportation for further details on the interview.
