Fisrt of all to get in to the lab facilities, first we have to pass through a fingerprint detector, once we are into the building ee have to access a code so the door can be opened.

Personal Safety

To be able to work in the lab you have to use a lab coat and nitrile gloves.
There is a Especial Room were the level 2 safety cabinet is located, in this room we have to use a mask since in that room we manage the pathogenic strains as Brucella sp. That can produce aerosols.
We are not able to eat inside the laboratory since it is a Microbial Pathogenicity Laboratory.
All the tables in the laboratory are cleaned with 70% Ethanol and when working with water waste or contaminated food we use benzyl.

Safety equipment

Inside the laboratory we have three safety cabinets, two of them of level 1 and 1 of level 2.
The laboratory is divided in 7 areas, the first one is were the Laboratory tables are located, in there we put our glass material, there are equipments as the incubators, centrifuges, thermocyclers, concentrator, heating grills and the refrigerators.
The second area it is were the cubicles of the chiefs of the laboratory are located.
The third area it is were we have the computer and our belongings such as backpacks.
The fourth area it is were the miliQ, fluorescence microscope, standard mycroscope and sonicator are located.
The fifth area contains our media cabinet ( were we storage all the dried media and other solid reagents.
The sixth are is the one that contains our -20°C, -4°C and 2°C refrigerators and a second cleaning area that is dedicated to pathogen bacteria, we have containers for this bacterias in the same area.
Lastly the seventh area is the one that has the level 2 safety cabinet, in this area is also located a incubator and a CO2 incubator.

Where does our experiments were performed?

Most of our experiments were performed in the level 2 cabinet, the level 1 was only used for media preparation.

We worked with E. coli BL21, DH5-a and Top10. Even though this bacterias are non pathogenic, they are really sensitive to the outer space, so the best way to work with them and mostly to avoid contamination is to work in a level 2 safety cabinet. The bacteria that was preserved in glycerol were stored at -80°C, restriction enzymed and plamids at -20°C and DNA at -4 °C.

The safety cabinet was cleaned before and after its usage with 70% Ethanol and sterile gauze. It is a rule at the lab that also before and after working on the cabinets we have to put on the UV light for 15 minutes.

Safety areas

We have two areas were you can find the safety equipment in case of accidents, one at the very entrance and another one in the room were the level two safety cabinet is located. We have a fire extinguisher and in different points of the lab you can find cabinets with fire blankets.

Also we have areas for the different types of wastes; the sharper objects goes to a red container, biological tissue, blood or fluid goes into a yellow container and solvents goes to a special container, we have our brominated zone were we have a container for every single thing that was contaminated with ethidium bromide, we have a special container for the glass material and lastly the container for the pathogenic bacteria.

Team:BUAP Mexico/Safety

Safety