Team:KU Leuven/Safety

Safety

Labs are just dangerous in general.

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Lab Safety There is an old proverb that says. “A healthy mind resides a healthy body”. So, in the case to achieve top quality work, we needed the best work environment possible! For our main office or working space, we were given a room in campus KU Leuven located near UZ Hospital Gasthuisberg. The second we received our keys, we made sure to make it as cozy as possible, because at the end of the day, we were going to spend our entire summer in this room. With that in mind, we equipped the room with a big white board for brain storming, iGEM medal requi-rements posters hung out on the door for inspirati-on and last but not least, we filled the room with all sorts of snacks because food is life! Work Environment General Safety Prior to entering the lab, every member of the 2017 KU Leuven iGEM team was given an introduction about lab safety protocols. Some general tips and rules to follow included: Food and drinks are forbidden in all labs. - Wearing lab coats and special labs require spe-cific color codes on lab coats.- The use of goggles and protective gloves when needed. Also, washing the hands before exiting the lab. - Cleaning the workspace after experimenting using 70% Ethanol and autoclaving lab equip-ment if needed. Different Lab Settings Given the complexity of the iGEM projects, and putting in mind what is expected of us to accom-plish for such a prestigious competition, it only fits that we would be working in multiple lab settings. A lab specialized for eukaryotic cell cultures, one for bacterial cell cultures, DNA replication and PCR, Patch Clamping and Fluorescence microscopy, Cal-cium Imaging, etc... It was such a privilege that KU Leuven granted us access to use these labs and equipment as they were vital to the success of our project. Minimizing Risks For the culturing of Eukaryotic cells, there are special sterile labs for ope-rations of growing, seeding and so on. To operate in those labs, one must use special lab quotes coded with an arbitrary color yellow on the collar. Only team members that were given the proper training for working in such a lab are allowed access. When working under the laminar flow, we must ensure extreme caution not to block the air flow to avoid contamination. For bacterial cultures, the working sterility requirement isn’t as stringent, as working with DNA and eukaryotic cells, however caution and lab safety protocols must always be followed! During the Patch Clamping process, it is extremely important to con-stantly stay “earthed” in order to avoid an electric shock. Great caution has to be taken when dealing with the buffers, in attempt to avoid damaging the microscope.For DNA replication and quality control, extra caution must be taken as we use SYBR safe, a sensitive DNA gel stain. The stain binds to DNA, classigying it as a carcinogen, which means special rubber gloves are used during the staining process and should be disposed of in the appropriate manner as in-structed in the lab safety protocol. All operations with carcinogens must be carried in the “toxic zone”.

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