SAFETY

Being a repository for chemicals, electrical equipments and biohazards, laboratories require a high level of care in observing safety rules. We believe in integrating safety into the lab environment and following safety practices in order to increase our efficiency, facilitate lab procedures and most importantly, protect the health of our members.

The safety level of our lab is low risk safety level – 1

In our lab, at NIPER-Guwahati, we follow all the safety guidelines as laid by our institute and are in accordance to iGEM safety policies.The following are some of the measures we take to observe safety

Work safety:

The experiments with E. coli and other experimental procedures like PCRs, electrophoresis etc. are done in Biosafety Level 1 labs. The experiments involving mammalian cell cultures are performed in BSL-2 cabinets in separate tissue culture facility.

NIPER Guwahati has well-equipped Biosafety Level-1 (BSL-1) and Biosafety Level-2 laboratory (BSL-2) for sole use in research and development. We have all the infrastructure support, trained human resource and material handling procedures in compliance to CDC guidelines.

Laboratory Facility Description:

A. Well equipped and properly maintained Lab space with all safety measures.

B. Properly maintained Biosafety Cabinets (level-2).

C. Isolated lab space with restricted entry to only trained personel.

D. Other support equipments; CO2 incubators, Fluorescence microscope, Centrifuges are installed in the laboratory space for easy access and avoiding cross contaminations.

E. Laboratory equipments and lab space are routinely decontaminated.

F. We have minimum furniture in the lab facility and all the stools are covered with non-porous material for easy cleaning.

G. The laboratory has air-conditioners (AC) to maintain ambient temperature. The AC vents are routinely cleaned and decontaminated.

H. The facility is well equipped for decontaminating all laboratory wastes (we have autoclave, chemical disinfection and other validated decontamination method).

Authorized personnel and access to Laboratory facility:

The facility restricts entry to only authorized personals. All of us working in the facility have undergone supervised training prior to our access to the laboratory. We are made aware of the various safety measures and potential hazards (possibly caused by accidental spillage, aerosols etc.) and it is made mandatory for us to follow specific entry/exit requirements as needed.

Material handling procedures:

Strict procedures are followed at our facility for safety level 1 laboratory and mammalian cell culture handling and disposal of waste:

A. All personals working at the facility wear protective gear such as laboratory coats, gloves and head cap while performing experiments and this procedure is rigorously followed.

B. Eating, drinking, smoking, and storing food for human consumption are strictly prohibited in laboratory areas.

C. All experimental procedures are performed to minimize splashes and/or aerosols.

D. Cell lines are handled using BSL-2 practices and containment as per CDC guidelines.

E. All experiments involving cell lines as conducted in Biosafety Cabinets.