Team:Oxford/Safety


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Safety

Personal safety is very important in the workplace, we ensured high standards were met. To read more click on each icon below.

The team attended a safety training session where we learnt about the potential dangers of the different substances and equipment we would be using. We all signed COSHH forms before working in the lab so that we knew the things in the lab that could be dangerous.
It is a requirement to wear a lab coat, goggles and gloves when in the bench area (unless we are using a non-glove keyboard or a microscope). We make sure that in all our social media photos that we are adhering this to promote safe practices in all our followers.
We have protocols for every experiment and method. This allows us to make sure we have good microbial technique. To read our protocols click here.
We used a UV lamp to visualise and cut agarose gels. We had to ensure we had no exposed skin on our hands/arms and had to wear a visor to protect our faces and eyes.
To avoid contamination we have 2 areas of workspace: a wet lab bench and dry desk space. These are in different rooms, nothing from the lab is allowed past the door in order to reduce the risk of contamination and increase safety and conversely no food or drink is allowed into the lab
There are different bins and the correct disposal of different materials is very important. We have all learnt what goes where to ensure we comply with established lab practices..
Because we are working with bacteria (biological hazard) we make sure that we wash our hands before leaving the bench area.
The departmental guidelines contains section details all the emergency procedures including first aid, fire procedures and accident reporting.

Safe Project Design

Safe Product Use

    • Problem:

      • The use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the field of healthcare

    • Evaluation:

      • There is a fear factor to consider when thinking about using GMOs in health care. GMOs have had bad media coverage and so you have to consider the acceptance of the new technology with its target user.

      (Another issue we may have is that biosafety, biosecurity and dual usage are all the same word in spanish (bioseguridad) so we will have to be careful when discussing this with our target audience.)

    • Solution:

      • Our system will be cell free so there will be no GMO’s present in our final device. In terms of regulation there are less barriers to this technology. However in some areas anything that is labelled as synthetic biology may be seen as the same thing as GMOs, so we must be careful in how we market our device so that patients are not put off.

    • Problem:

      • The use of cruzipain to test our system in a proof-of-concept

    • Evaluation:

      • Cruzipain is a pathogenic protein so it would be dangerous to use in the lab. It is also hard to obtain.

    • Solution:

      • We will be using TEV instead for proof of concept, in order to best ensure our safety as well as get meaningful data. TEV has the added benefit of being a well characterised and widely used protein (so could be more reliable?).

Please visit the main Safety page to find this year's safety requirements & deadlines, and to learn about safe & responsible research in iGEM.

On this page of your wiki, you should write about how you are addressing any safety issues in your project. The wiki is a place where you can go beyond the questions on the safety forms, and write about whatever safety topics are most interesting in your project. (You do not need to copy your safety forms onto this wiki page.)

Safe Project Design

Does your project include any safety features? Have you made certain decisions about the design to reduce risks? Write about them here! For example:

  • Choosing a non-pathogenic chassis
  • Choosing parts that will not harm humans / animals / plants
  • Substituting safer materials for dangerous materials in a proof-of-concept experiment
  • Including an "induced lethality" or "kill-switch" device
Safe Lab Work

What safety procedures do you use every day in the lab? Did you perform any unusual experiments, or face any unusual safety issues? Write about them here!

Safe Shipment

Did you face any safety problems in sending your DNA parts to the Registry? How did you solve those problems?