What are Risk Groups and Safety Levels?

Microorganisms are classified into four Risk Groups, and biological laboratories are classified into four corresponding Safety Levels. Risk Group 1 contains non-pathogenic organisms like yeast and E. coli K-12. The majority of iGEM teams use only Risk Group 1 organisms. Some teams use Risk Group 2 organisms. iGEM teams are not permitted to use Risk Group 3 or 4 organisms, or to work in Safety Level 3 or 4 laboratories.

	Risk Group 1	Risk Group 2	Risk Group 3	Risk Group 4
Examples	E. coli K-12, S. cerevisiae (yeast), Lactobacillus, B. subtilis	Streptococcus, Herpes virus, most mammalian cell lines	Yersinia pestis (black plague), HIV, SARS virus	Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Lassa virus
Description	Risk Group 1 organisms do not cause disease in healthy adult humans.	Risk Group 2 organisms can cause disease in humans, but the disease is treatable or preventable.	Risk Group 3 organisms cause serious disease in humans. Treatments and vaccines for these diseases may exist.	Risk Group 4 organisms cause deadly disease in humans, and they can easily travel from one person to another. No treatments or vaccines exist for these diseases.
Lab Safety Level	Safety Level 1	Safety Level 2	Safety Level 3	Safety Level 4
Typical Lab Photo
Typical Work Area	Open bench	Biosafety cabinet / laminar flow hood	Class 3 biosafety cabinet	Full isolation suits
	Permitted in iGEM		Not permitted in iGEM

What if we want to use a Risk Group 3 or 4 organism?

Don't do it. Find a substitute.

Risk Groups 3 and 4 include the most serious and deadly pathogens in the world. They require extremely stringent safety precautions and specialized lab facilities. There is no compelling reason for any iGEM team to choose to work with Risk Group 3 or 4 organisms, when instead you could choose from the vast array of interesting project topics that use only Risk Group 1 or 2 organisms.

Using safer substitutes for dangerous organisms is entirely appropriate for iGEM. For example, the 2013 Paris Bettencourt team studied tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a Risk Group 3 organism, so for safety reasons, they substituted a related Risk Group 2 organism (Mycobacterium smegmatis) in their experiments. These experiments were a proof of principle for their project ideas.

Animals and plants have no Risk Group

The four Risk Groups only apply to microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses). For animals, plants, and other multicellular organisms, there are different safety guidelines. Please consult with your advisor or university authorities if you plan to do experiments with animals and plants.

If you are using a part from an animal or plant, you should consider the function of the part, and consider whether it might be dangerous to humans. For example, the gene for Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) comes from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which does not have a Risk Group. GFP is only a fluorescent protein, absorbing and emitting light, so it is safe for humans and you can use it in a Safety Level 1 lab. But if you consider a different gene from A. victoria, such as the gene for the toxin in its stinging tentacles, you might conclude that you should only use that gene under strict safety conditions!

How can I find out the Risk Group of my organism?