About our Lab

This part of the form is for you to tell us about your laboratory space and your safety equipment. If you need help, please consult your faculty advisor or laboratory manager. You can also read the Safety page and the Risk Groups page for basic information about different types of biology labs.

1. Please upload a photo or two of your lab, preferably showing the relevant safety features and paste the link here:

Biosafety Level

2. What is the Safety Level of your lab? [Help about Risk Groups and Safety Levels]

• Other safety level:
• We have several different lab spaces with different Safety Levels:
• Unknown (please comment):

Work areas

3 Which work areas do you use to handle biological materials? Please check all that apply.

• Open bench
• Biosafety cabinet
• Other work area:
• Unknown:

Biosafety Training

4. Have your team members received any safety training yet?

5. Please briefly describe the topics that you learned about (or will learn about) in your safety training.

• Lab access and rules (including appropriate clothing, eating and drinking, etc.)
• Responsible individuals (such as lab or departmental specialist or institutional biosafety officer)
• Differences between biosafety levels
• Biosafety equipment (such as biosafety cabinets)
• Good microbial technique (such as lab practices)
• Disinfection and sterilization
• Emergency procedures
• Transport rules
• Chemicals, fire and electrical safety
• Other

6. Who provided your safety training? Did you get training from multiple people?

• University biosafety office
• Departmental specialist
• PIs/instructors
• Other

Oversight

7. Who is responsible for the safety of biology labs at your institution? What are the guidelines for laboratory biosafety? Please give a link to these guidelines, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

8. In your country / region, what are the laws and regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories? Please give a link to these regulations, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

Uncertainties

9. Are there any areas where you have encountered uncertainties concerning institutional, regional, national or international rules and regulations and whether they are relevant to your lab and/or work?

10. Do you think the design of current regulations is sufficient to ensure safe and ethical practices?

(If not, how else could you approach the design? We’re interested in your ideas for strategies that could be used to promote safe and ethical practices as it becomes easier to engineer biology (i.e. monitoring people or information, building safety into the design of equipment, etc). Can you think of any useful examples from other fields?)

About our Project

This part of the form is for you to tell us about your primary project idea, what organisms and parts you will use and what your project will do. We know that iGEM teams often change project topics during the summer. When you change your primary project idea, please update this form to tell us about your new idea! If you are still working on multiple project ideas by June 30, you may choose one to describe on this form, or you may tell us about other ideas in the "Further Comments" section.

Project Overview

11. How will your project work?

Describe the goal of your project: what is your engineered organism supposed to do? Please include specific technical details and names of important parts. (Even though your project might change, please describe the main project idea you are working on right now. See the example answers for help.)

Future applications

12. How would your project be used in the real world?

Imagine that your project was fully developed into a real product that real people could use. How would people use it? Check all appropriate boxes and expand in the comments section.

• Our project is foundational / we do not have a specific real-world application in mind
  (Examples: library of standardized promoters, system for communication between cells)
• Only in the lab
  (Examples: reporter strain for measuring the strength of promoters)
• In a factory
  (Examples: cells that make a flavor chemical for food, cells that make biofuel)
• In a consumer product that ordinary people buy
  (Examples: cells that clean your clothes, bread made with engineered yeast)
• In agriculture / on a farm
  (Examples: cells that guard against pests, engineered rice plants, cells that promote growth of crop plants)
• In a small enclosed device
  (Examples: a bio-sensing strip with cells that detect arsenic)
• In the natural environment
  (Examples: cells that remove pollution from lakes, engineered forest trees that can resist drought)
• To be used in the human body, or in food
  (Examples: anti-cancer bacteria, bread made with engineered yeast, engineered rice plants)
• Other
  (Examples: bacteria that live on Mars)

13. What safety or ethical risks would be involved with such a use?

Specific risks

14. Does your project include the use of gene drives?

15. Does your project include the use of animals?

• Yes
  STOP: The use of animals is not allowed in iGEM projects without a special exception from the Safety Committee. For more information see the Safety Policy page and the White List. Please contact the Safety Committee by emailing safety AT igem DOT org
• No

15. Does your project include the use of anti-microbial resistance factors? For more information see the Safety Policy page and the White List.

Submit

Only a team Instructor or PI may submit the Safety Form.

Instructors/PIs, please read the form you are submitting, and confirm that all its information is correct. By checking the "I Agree" box and clicking the "Submit" button, you are agreeing that the Final Safety Form accurately describes the activities of your team. We are using the "I Agree" box in lieu of a signature with paper and pen.