noun"the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury"(1)
Safety in the lab
One of the biggest risks in laboratory work is the misuse or the wrong use of equipment or chemicals. To ensure proper usage Safety Instructions were mandatory for everyone to enable every team member to work autonomously. Lab clearance was granted from lab officials after participating in a safety briefing. Everyone had to comply with the lab guidelines at every time. All work (except Chlamy transformation and fluorescence microscopy which were carried out in the laboratory of Prof. Hegemann or the Plant Physiology group respectively) was conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Schmitz-Linneweber. Every set of tests was performed according to previous consultation of our PI or lab employees. All contamination prone experiments were either performed at the clean bench or close to a burner. The organisms used (E. coli and C. reinhardtii) are both classified as S1 organisms - the lowest risk group. All flasks and culture dishes containing genetically engineered organisms were properly autoclaved. More information regarding our lab safety can be found in our iGEM Safety Form.
Safety of our set-up
One question we have been asked quite often is whether we would release our algae into the water if they worked as expected. There is a simple answer to this: no! Possible usage scenarios always envision a closed system in form of a cultivator or bioreactor that can be used for instance as a possible cleaning step in wastewater treatment. Nevertheless we could prove that our Chlamys would not grow in simple tap water, even if it was autoclaved beforehand indicating no imminent danger if Chlamys would be released from their container. Additionally restricts European jurisdiction the release of Genetic Modified Organisms. The second question many were interested in was whether the products of the two degradation steps ethylen glcycol and terephthalic acid pose a threat for the environment. The World Health Organization states in their chemical assessment that "Ethylene glycol has generally low toxicity to aquatic organisms. Toxic thresholds for microorganisms are above 1000 mg/litre" (WHO, 2000). We could demonstrate similar low toxicity on Chlamy for ethylen glcycol and terephthalic acid (see Results).
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World Health Organization, and Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals. Concise International Chemical Assessment Document. No. 22. World Health Organization, 2000.
(1) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/safety