Team:Jilin China/Lab Safety
There are growing concerns about bio-safety around the world. Potential bio-threaten of genetically engineered microorganism to human health and ecology has drawn people’s attention over the years.
Taking biosafety into major consideration, 2017 Jilin_China designed Geneguard system to achieve self-regulation of E. coli growth. Our Geneguard system was based on natural type IV toxin/antitoxin(TA) system. CbtA, the toxin, inhibits the polymerization of bacterial cytoskeletal proteins, MreB and FtsZ. On the contrary, CbeA, the antitoxin, binds to MreB and FtsZ and promotes the assembly of FtsZ and MreB filaments. The growth of engineered bacterium was suppressed when toxin was expressed. When antitoxin was induced, the toxicity could be blocked and the bacteria grew normally.
With the utilization of Geneguard system, risk of escaping of engineered bacteria can be reduced.
Prior to starting our wet lab work, all our team members learned the laboratory safety principle of our school and took a training about experimental equipment using. Those preparations allowed us to keep in mind the potential safety issues in the lab we were going to work in and what we should do to deal with emergency problems.
The principle of laboratory safety could be summarized as following:
- Protective equipment should be wore to avoid direct contact with pathogenic microorganism or toxic chemicals.
- Keep in mind the location of emergency showers and eyewash, as well as the fire blanket and fire extinguisher.
- Different classes of chemicals should be stored at appropriate condition.
- Biological safety hazard waste should be collected and handled in specific ways.
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