Team:HK SKHLPSS/Safety

Safety

Safety counts...

Our team values safety as always. Throughout the whole iGEM process, the following safety measures are taken place thoroughly.

1. General Lab Safety Measures

First of all, our school has to comply with the practice on Laboratory Safety and Management required by the Education Bureau in Hong Kong. Relevant requirement could be found here.

Before any lab works taken place, two PIs and instructor had a brief safety assessment to ensure our laboratory is suitable for all the iGEM-relevant experiments. Besides, all team members had attended a safety training at the beginning to ensure members have all the safety practices they need to know.

During the experiments,every member is required to wear safety glasses, gloves and lab coat to protect themselves and to prevent any contamination between team members and the samples.

2. Project Safety Measures

In Selection of Bacteria...

E. coli and Lactobacillus, easily found in natural environment, are in risk group 1 according to Canadian Pathogen Safety Data Sheets (PSDS) published by The Public Health Agency of Canada. Hence, low potential risks are expected when these bacteria enter the real world.

In Selection of diagnostic micrrorgansims...

Lactobacillus are selected to be our target diagnostic organisms because they are probiotics and could be easily found in commercial products. We deliberately not choose any harmful organisms as diagnostic targets to minimize the risks posing to our members as well as the general public.

In Future...

Other organisms may be used to demonstrate the ability of the diagnosis; further risk assessments may be required correspondingly.

References

• 1. Public Health Agency of Canada. (2018, July 24). Government of Canada. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/laboratory-biosafety-biosecurity/pathogen-safety-data-sheets-risk-assessment.html.