Difference between revisions of "Team:Tongji China/Safety"

All the members of Tongji-China have always attached great importance to bio-safety. We think we should introduce our adviser Lei Xue, a professor of genetics at the school of life sciences at Tongji University. His research areas include the molecular and genetic mechanism of tumorigenesis and apoptosis with drosophila model. Professor Xue and other researchers in the lab supervise us and give us a lot of guidance in fruit fly experiment.

In our project, we use 2 kinds of organism, Drosophila melanogaster and Escherichia coli . E.coli is ranked in the organisms of Level 1 risk goup. And because D.melanogaster is not included in the iGEM White List, we contacted Safety committee, Gender Diversity committee and Human Practices committee positively and got permissions.

Even though the E.coli and we work with is not harmful for the environment and health, we still assume that they may threaten the ecology, so we wear rubber gloves and lab coat when we do the experiments to keep it from direct touching with human body. We also do all the experiments with these living organism in the laminar flow bench to prevent those organism from getting into the outside air. After we do the experiments, we use NaClO solution to sterilizing waste such as the used agar plate and the used tips. What's more, everytime after we finish our work, we use UV light to sterilize the lab.

We attach great importance to the safety of Drosophila melanogaster experiments and learnt experimental operation earnestly in Xue's Lab. We have complete measures to prevent flies from escaping. After asking Xue's permission, we take photos to show how we keep the flies contained.



We use glass tube with cotton plug to keep the fruit flies in the lab and different samples are placed in different incubators with safety lock. In the process of culturing fruit flies, the fruit flies can not escape the incubator.


The lab is divided into several areas by function and separated by double-doors, for example student-resting area, inoculation area, experimental area and so on. The inoculation area is located at the innermost and its ventilation is carried out only by center ventilation system. Air in center ventilation system will be disposed of expertly so that the fruit flies escaping from incubator will be collected.


Vinegar traps and sticky traps are placed in all the areas in order to prevent any escape of the flies in experiment. They mimic the smell of rotting fruits and attract fruit flies, flies will be stuck or drowned in the traps.


By the way, we only use as few as possible flies in verification experiment and in other experiment we use Escherichia coli as experimental subject.

Members in our team have read the established laboratory safety principles of our school, and the topics in our safety training can be summarized as follows:

1. Non-biological operations

1.1 Handling chemicals
   1.2 Dealing with emergency measures(such as fire, electric leakage and negligent wounds)
   1.3 Instruments and facilities operation principles


2. Biological operations:

2.1 Potential pollution source of our engineering bacterium (Escherichia coli)
  2.2 Effective protection during organism operations
  2.3 Waste materials handling measures
  2.4 Emission rules

Our team have doctoral students as our supervisors to ensure that our operation is correct and prevent us from safety problems. Team members who participation in biological experiments have at least been in a lab since grade one and working for at least 2 years. In order to ensure the safety of the project, all the members received biosafety training at the begining. The biosafety guidelines of our institution can be describe as follows:


  1. All laboratories must be specially designed with necessary protective measures.
2. All laboratories must set up strict management systems, standard operation procedures and rules.
3. Each instrument needs a special person to be responsible for regular inspection and declare maintenance.
  4. Each staff should be equipped with personal safety equipment to avoid direct contact with the pathogenic microorganism or toxic chemicals.
  5. Laboratories should establish emergency handling procedures and have routine inspection for all of the equipment.
  6. New staffs should be well trained and pass the experiment test before performing experiments themselves. Only the person who passed the test can get the key card.
7. Before using every instrument, staffs should swipe key card and input student number and password.

Our laboratory completely complies with Chinese laws and regulations and pass the periodic inspection every year.

Click here to check the full regulation:
http://www.moa.gov.cn/zwllm/zcfg/qtbmgz/200603/t20060323_577678.htm
http://www.moa.gov.cn/zwllm/zcfg/nybgz/200806/t20080606_1057067.htm