Team:Bilkent-UNAMBG/Safety

General Lab Safety

All members of Bilkent UNAMBG iGEM team went through a biosafety training before starting lab work. Following the training, all members of our team took a written exam regarding biosafety and everyone passed the exam. Our team conducts research in Synthetic Biosystems Lab of UNAM (National Nanotechnology Research Center) and no one is allowed to start working at UNAM before passing the biosafety exam. UNAM has a Laboratory Safety Committee. The basic guidelines and the safety orientation of UNAM can be found here.

Personal Safety

To maintain the personal safety of all members, it is mandatory for everyone to use lab coats and nitrile gloves during the experiments. Additional precautions are also taken while dealing with dangerous materials such as strong acids and bases, UV-light etc.

Project Specific Safety

Our project is conducted at Biosafety Level-2. The E.coli strains we use (Nissle, DH5-alpha, BL-21) are in the Risk Group-1, but since our project involves working with HepaRG, which is a mammalian cell line, special precautions are taken to avoid potential hazards to the lab personnel and the environment. We have appropriate conditions to handle both BSL-1 and BSL-2 organisms at our lab. All potentially hazardous materials are decontaminated with strong disinfectants and carefully disposed of in their appropriate waste. All lab equipment and work surfaces are also decontaminated between experiments and after the lab work is done for the day.