Team:Austin UTexas/Safety

Safety in iGEM

Please visit the main Safety page to find this year's safety requirements & deadlines, and to learn about safe & responsible research in iGEM.

When working with E. coli ''∆guaB'', TOP 10, MDS42, BL21 (DE3), and BW25113, our iGEM team considered a number of potential safety hazards, including the fact that we were working with a genetically modified organism. Biological safety precautions were taken, and a check-out form was not required for our strains of E.Coli. Our plasmids are not inherently dangerous; they only contain antibiotic resistance genes and a fluorescent reporter. The main risk would be if we send out the ''∆guaB'' E. coli used in the caffeine part of our project to more labs and increasing its use, the chance of it escaping would increase. However, the ''∆guaB'' E. coli are significantly less fit than wild-type E. coli, and will not survive very long in the wild because of a lack of caffeine that it needs to grow on. Should the project ever grow, we may want to add some sort of way to kill the ''∆guaB'' E. coli should they ever escape, or make them auxotrophic in some way so that they would not be able to survive if they escaped. The other strains of E.Coli used for measuring fluorescence levels do not pose any significant harm inside or outside of lab since they contain ?????? The only potential chemical safety concern of working with the ncAAs used in this project was that a strong base was required to dissolve one of the compounds. Otherwise, the risks were minimal, and as long as PPE was worn, there was no significant danger to us, the lab, or the community. See our about our lab, check-in, and safety forms for more information. [add links] General information about safety can be found at the iGEM Safety Hub On this page of your wiki, you should write about how you are addressing any safety issues in your project. The wiki is a place where you can go beyond the questions on the safety forms, and write about whatever safety topics are most interesting in your project. (You do not need to copy your safety forms onto this wiki page.)

Safe Project Design

Does your project include any safety features? Have you made certain decisions about the design to reduce risks? Write about them here! For example:

  • Choosing a non-pathogenic chassis
  • Choosing parts that will not harm humans / animals / plants
  • Substituting safer materials for dangerous materials in a proof-of-concept experiment
  • Including an "induced lethality" or "kill-switch" device

Safe Lab Work

What safety procedures do you use every day in the lab? Did you perform any unusual experiments, or face any unusual safety issues? Write about them here!

Safe Shipment

Did you face any safety problems in sending your DNA parts to the Registry? How did you solve those problems?