Team:Lethbridge HS/Safety
All wet lab experiments are hosted at the University of Lethbridge Chemistry and Biochemistry department. The lab itself is a Containment Level One which “requires no special design features beyond those suitable for a well-designed and functional laboratory. Containment is achieved through the use of practices normally employed in a basic microbiology laboratory.” - Public Health Agency of Canada.
Other precautions are taken to further provide a safe work environment for team members. Prior to any lab work, students are required to come in lab-appropriate attire: long pants, closed-toed shoes, and tied-back long hair. Further equipment is given to the student for extra protection such as lab coats, safety glasses, and gloves. All labs at the University of Lethbridge are equipped with fire extinguishers, emergency showers, eyewash stations, and first aid kits in case of dire situations. WHMIS training is provided to all students before any wet lab experiments, and advisor supervision is provided at all times to further ensure safety.
To address biosafety, the University of Lethbridge has a Risk and Safety Services committee tasked with ensuring a safe work environment is upheld by all labs within the institution. The goal of the committee is to “... educate, mentor, foster and grow an environment to all members of the University of Lethbridge community where each accepts an individual and shared responsibility in growing a culture that is rich in the assessment, management and control of risk and safety.” - U of L Risk and Safety Services.
The Risk and Safety committee is aware of Lethbridge iGEM and of our project. They support our work as long as we follow the Laboratory Safety Guidelines outlined by "Health Canada: Public Health Agency of Canada."
A main concern with our system is its specificity. Off target effects can lead to unintended mutations, leading to the detection of an incorrect RNA sequence. In order to improve the precision of our system and reduce the chance of obtaining a false positive we have various, effective solutions.
- We can decrease the chance of false positives by changing the length of the single guide RNA.
- Ensuring that unique target sequences are employed will limit the chance of a false positive.
A database would be created to enable one to find these unique sequences pertaining to each individual pathogen we are detecting.
To decrease the concerns regarding viral delivery our system will be administered through specific bacteriophages.
- The use of a phage as our delivery mechanism will also increase the precision of our system. Phages are viruses that are only capable of infecting bacterial cells, and therefore not human cells. Particularly, no harm shall be caused to the human microbiome. Furthermore, bacteriophages already exist in the human body; no immune response would be triggered in the human body.
Some phages are even only able to infect certain bacteria. Thereby, a phage that could only attack the bacteria a patient is infected with could be selected. This would reduce the chance of adverse effects, if an error in diagnosis should occur.