Team:CIEI-BJ/Safety
Mosquitoes are considered as one of the most deadly animals due to their capability of transmitting infectious diseases among humans. These insects use saliva for circumventing the physical responses of preys, and various pathogens contained are transported among individuals as the mosquitoes continuously sting. Mosquito-borne diseases have caused many cases of infections and deaths globally. Malaria, common disease found in tropical and sub-tropical regions, was reported to have 296 million cases and 730500 deaths in 2015. Zika viruses, another epidemic disease, was reported to have 1.5 million cases in 2016. To avoid the devastating influences of mosquitoes, many mosquito repellent methods were applied to the market. However, the products people used to repel mosquitoes now, are not satisfying enough. The most important problem is that the products contain poisonous ingredient which may harm the users. Furthermore, the products are not very effective in mosquito repelling. To improve the current unsatisfying situation of the mosquito repellents, our team, CIEI-BJ, utilized knowledge of synthetic biology to provide a better solution. We constructed the genetic pathway involved geraniol synthase (GES) and old yellow enzyme (OYE) to modify the plasmid of E.coli and let E.coli help us to transfer glucose into citronellol, a much more effective and non-poisonous substance for repelling of mosquitoes.
Everyone has to wear lab coat, rubber gloves, goggles, surgery mask when carrying out experiments.
Before every experiment, our teachers have informed us about the procedure and details of every step to ensure everybody is prepared for the experiment.
Everybody has to wash their hands completely before and after each experiment. In addition, everyone should use 70% alcohol to sterilize hands before entering every laminar flow.
Ensuring a sterile environment for experiments: keep Eppendorf tubes and pipettes free from unneeded bacteria or impurity.
Food and beverages are not allowed in labs.
Power off the equipment after the experiment, avoid fire.
Emergency equipment is well prepared and all of us understand clearly how to use them when we need.
Solid wastes should be put in solid waste cylinder, liquid wastes should be put in liquid waste cylinder.
E.coli used in our experiments is harmless to human body.
A centrifuge is an equipment that separates substance with different density in tubes by spinning them very quickly. It rotates its tubes in a fixed axis which is perpendicular to the ground. For example, we use it to separate plasmid and liquid, in which plasmid is heavier. When spinning in a high speed, heavier substance goes to the bottom of the tube and lighter ones go to the top. To ensure safety under a very high speed, we must place the tubes in a symmetrical position and close the lid before starting the machine.
Incubator can serve a best situation for the bacteria, to make bacteria grow up faster and safer. We put the E.coli which in the solid LB broth into the incubator to produce the bacteria colony, and save the E.coli sample or plasmid.
Autoclave is a big chamber with high heat and pressure to sterilize equipment. Autoclave kills bacteria and denatures or destroys proteins by subjecting them to high-temp steam. Before turning on an autoclave, the user must close the lid tightly. Although the sterilizing process only takes about 15~20 minutes, the whole heating and cooling down process takes about 1 hour.
A laminar flow is an enclosed, ventilated chamber which contains UV light to kill the bacteria when not using it. Common rules about using it includes: completely sterilize your glove using 70% alcohol, turn off the UV lights when putting your hands in and avoid letting your unsterilized sleeves or watches touch the samples. Everyone must be familiar with the rules before they operate in a laminar flow.
Weighing scale are devices which are used to weigh the mass of some matters. It can correct the measurement to0.01g. And before we measure the weight, we need pave a paper firstly, and then place the matter on the paper,because it can protect the matter from the wind or touching.
The gel documentation system is a huge machine that can test the trace of nucleic acid left in gel electrophoresis by exposing the whole gel to UV light. The samples are often mixed with SYBR (color).
Gel Electrophoresis Equipment is a machine which processes the Gel Electrophoresis. We put the gel which take the DNA and add the 1xTEA. Then we power on it. The DNA start moving from negative charge to positive charge. Because of that, we can check out the DNA whether we need. Used safe florescence dye instead of the toxic EB, wear two layers of glove, processed in specialized area, all of the waste produced were treated individually.
Water bath can keep a constant temperature for incubation or E.coli the water. So we can do some work which need at a high constant temperature. For example, the transformation, we put the vector and fragment on the buoy and drop into the water, then they can start transform in the best constant temperature. Furthermore, if we want to save a matter recently in a constant temperature, we also can use it. Make sure there is always water in the water bath, avoid dry heating and burning.
