Team:SCU-China/Safety
LAB
SAFETY
General Laboratory Safety
Safety is a very important aspect when working in a laboratory. For this purpose, our team is in full compliance with the safety and security rules of the iGEM competition.
Our team works in the safety level 1 lab, which is the lowest safety level and is sufficient for all our experiments. (Figure. 1) To develop a safer laboratory environment for team members, we classified reagents and drugs, put hazardous reagents into the special storage cabinet and marked them for warning. And we also periodically worked with our college’s safety committee to examine our facilities. Besides, we developed detailed laboratory rules to maintain a safe laboratory environment. The completed laboratory rules can be found here.
Figure. 1 SCU-China’s safety level 1 lab. (a) SCU-China maintains a clean and safe laboratory environment. (b) The biosafety cabinet used for sterile operation is clean and tidy.
Training and Enforcement
The PI of our team, Nianhui Zhang, is responsible for the biosafety of our lab. (Figure. 2) He can provide us with reliable safety guidance because he has 26 years of teaching experience.
Before starting work in the lab, all team members must complete full training about safety knowledge and experimental operation under the instruction of staff and teachers. (Figure. 2) During the training in the winter holiday in February 2019, we learned the guidelines of experiment safety, the allowed and safe operations of equipment, the emergency handlings, the pollution we may cause because of incorrect operations, the storage places and rules, the way of experiment recording, and the rules of cleaning.
Figure. 2 SCU-China’s training about safety knowledge and experimental operation. (a) The PI provides team members with reliable safety guidance. (b) Team members complete training about experimental operations under the instruction of staff and teachers.
After the training, we improved the laboratory management approach to better enforce laboratory rules. We put responsibility into everyone and develop supervision and punishment measures. See here for more details about our laboratory rules.
Project Specific Laboratory Safety
This year, we transfer three enzymes of Cordyceps militaris (Cns1, Cns2, and Cns3) to Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce pentostatin (PTN) and cordycepin (COR) together. In the project, we work with E. coli and S. cerevisiae, which are Risk Group 1 organisms. It has been widely accepted that E. coli and S. cerevisiae are safe. And the experiments contain molecular cloning, protein expression, and HPLC test, which have been widely performed in labs and have detailed protocols from the guide book. Therefore, if we follow the process of standard experiments, there is little risk.
Moreover, our project wants to engineer S. cerevisiae to produce PTN and COR together to optimize the level of production and quality of the products in the factory which can control the spread of microorganisms. During the operation, to prevent microorganisms from escaping from the lab into the environment, we use the mutant strains which are less adaptive than those wild types. To further limit the spread of microorganisms in the lab, 70% ethanol was frequently used on benches and other surfaces to kill microorganisms, as well as the lab crew's hands as a disinfectant. The used reagents with engineered organisms are collected and sterilized. Therefore, we will not release or deploy any genetically modified organisms, or the products of genetically modified organisms, outside the lab. In summary, we ensured that our project is safe in both design and operation, causing no harm to ourselves and no damage to the environment.