Team:McMaster II/Safety
Safety
The McMaster iGEM team’s strategy for addressing safety is two-fold: (a) we applied the principles of biological lab safety to protect student researchers from preventable harms; and (b) we incorporated safety- and ethics-conscious considerations into the design of our tumor-sensing gene circuit.
Laboratory Biosafety
The biology lab safety was administered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, whereas all students have received certification to work up to Biosafety Level 2 from the University Safety Office. The training guidelines are as follows in the attached link (http://biosafety.mcmaster.ca/biosafety_training.htm). All guidelines and SOPs used will be that assigned by the University, again, all students have received certification from the McMaster Safety Office on the following: Fire Safety, Autoclave Awareness, Ergonomics, Slips/Trips/Falls, Chemical Handling, Gas Cylinders, Asbestos, Health Orientation, WHMIS, etc. In Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada manage the biosafety guidelines which are administered at the respective university by the safety office. The link to the governmental website is attached (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/index-eng.php). As a result of this training, wet-lab members of the iGEM team developed competence in the following areas: lab access and rules, responsible individuals, differences between biosafety levels, biosafety equipment, good microbial technique, disinfection and sterilization, emergency procedures, transport rules, and chemical, fire and electrical safety.
The lab space (BSL1) was set up and regularly maintained to create not only a safe environment but to protect the integrity of sensitive biological assays and bacterial cultures.
Biological Safeguards
DHT-Alpha and MG1566 E. coli were selected as our chassis on the basis of a comparatively low risk of pathogenicity and toxigenicity as well as the symbiotic role E. coli play as part of the human microbiome. Bacteria were grown solely in petri dishes or on extracellular matrix scaffolds composed primarily of collagen. All such experimented were conducted in BSL1 in a biosafety cabinet, allowing experimental treatments to be contained and easily aborted if necessary. Safety considerations are also an in-built feature of our genetic circuit, as our bacteria were engineered to secrete acyl homo-L-serine C12 - a quorum sensing molecule - to initiate apoptosis of tumor cells. This pathway works in a negative feedback loop to ensure bacterial self-destruction when the environment is not present by the hok/sok system. Naturally, this quorum sensing function also serves as a safeguard for preventing bacterial colonization in vivo and limiting the production of cytotoxic C12.
