Team:Peking/Safety
Safety
Safe project design
Our Dr. Control system is to be used in bacteria therapy. For the first-stage characterization, only standard laboratory strains of E. coli (BL 21, TOP10 and DH5α) are used. And we choose a non-pathogenic strain E. coli Nissle 1917 for demonstration. All of our illustration is carried in vitro at present. Furthermore, E. coli Nissle 1917 has actually been shown to successfully outcompete intestinal pathogens to form biofilms in the gut, meaning that our probiotic should be safe to consumer, and may actually have additional advantageous effects on patients.
Safe materials
In our experiments, we chose E. coli as the chassis for molecular cloning, and E. coli Nissle 1917. These two strains are well known and non-pathogenic. Our bio-parts are constructed by collecting segments from safe plasmid by which means we avoid using unknown segments. Those parts which have potential to cause environment problem, animal and plant disease, ecosystem changing are strictly prohibited.
Safe lab work
As the iGEM safety policy requires, we didn’t do any dangerous experiments in daily bench work or faced any unusual safety issues. The bench work followed some basic regulations as below: 1. Duplicating a key to the laboratory without permission was strictly prohibited. 2. All involved participants needed to understand the experiment completely before commencing work. 3. All experimenters had to wear rubber gloves. 4. Any steps involving potential release of live microorganisms were performed in a bio-safety cabinet. 5. Appliances such as Bunsen burners, electric heaters and microwave ovens were not left unattended while in use. 6. All liquid and solid waste potentially containing living organism was sterilized. 7. The entire lab was sterilized using UV-light every week. 8. The last person to leave the lab always made sure that water, electricity, gas, and the air conditioner were shut down, and doors and windows have been locked before leaving.