Team:TAU Israel/Safety
Safety procedures
During our project we followed Tel Aviv University Safety Unit's instructions and procedures while working in the lab on our project.
Safety training
Before we started working on our project in the lab, all team members participated in an official safety training preformed by the biology safety superior and the chemistry safety superior regarding lab procedures, chemical, and biological hazards, lab safety equipment and more.
Bio-Safety Levels
Our project aims to find a solution for the elimination of antibiotic resistant bacteria and other pathogens, and the R2-type pyocins which we chose to engineer, originate in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Therefore, during our project, we targeted and worked with BSL2 organisms, such as P.aeruginosa, Salmonella and more. Before starting to work with any BSL2 organism, we submitted a check-in form to iGEM safety unit. Though our system originates in a pathogen, we cloned it into E.coli from the BSL1 strains DH10b and BL21. Furthermore, our part characterization and part improvement were conducted in DH10b. During our project we maintained two different working spaces, one which is a BSL2 area inside our supervisor Dr. Dor Salomon authorized BSL2 lab, and a second and main working space which is a BSL1 area.
R2-type Pyocin
Pyocins are large protein complexes, originate in Pseudomonas strains. Though homologous to bacteriophages, they don't contain any DNA or RNA, which gives them an advantage as a suggested medicine.
A safe medicine
With the right delivery, pyocins are safe for use as a treatment in case of diarrhea (RITCHIE ET AL., ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS AND CHEMOTHERAPY, 2011.
Similar to bacteriophages, pyocins are also very specific as shown in our experiment and previous works.