Team:MichiganState/Safety
Safety
General Safety
The Michigan State University (MSU) iGEM team has recognized safety as a main priority throughout the execution of our project. Before beginning any lab work, we took several sessions of safety training mandated by the EHS for our work. These pieces of training included: Biosafety Principles, Compressed Gas Cylinder, Autoclave Safety, as well as Chemical Hygiene and Hazardous Waste.
Following the completion of the online training, each team member was given a tour of the lab on the sixth floor of MSU’s Biomedical and Physical Science Building, which is Biosafety Level 1. All members were shown all relevant safety features including the fire extinguisher, safety showers, eyewash station, spill kits, and the emergency evacuation route. Proper waste disposal of biohazardous material was also demonstrated to the team.
When present in the lab, team members always made sure to have adequate personal protective equipment, such as closed-toed shoes, long pants, and gloves when necessary. All new procedures were demonstrated to the members by an experienced employee of MSU to ensure the safe execution of a procedure.
Project Specific Safety
Although our lab uses Midori green for our gels, the shared gel imager is used by those that utilize ethidium bromide. Special care was taken when using this shared equipment by wearing gloves and immediately disposing of them after use. Further, kanamycin was used in several experiments and proper protocols were used to avoid contact with skin, including wearing gloves.
Methane was also utilized for several aspects of the project. To ensure the safe use of methane gas, a faculty member of Michigan State was always present. Also, the methane was always used with a filter under the fume hood. The proper storage of the gas tank was employed.
