Team:UCSC/Safety

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Safety

Safety

1. Overview
2. General
3. Specific

Overview

     We here at UCSC understand that the safety of both our team members and the greater community is paramount while performing our experiments. While working on our project, we follow all necessary safety guidelines in order to mitigate the risks associated with our work.

General Lab Safety

     Before working in our lab at UCSC, all iGEM team members had to complete a “Laboratory Safety Fundamentals” course as well as participate in a Laboratory-Specific Safety Training. These programs are approved by the campus’ Environmental Health and Safety department. These courses go over where safety equipment such as fire alarms and shower/eye wash facilities are located in relation to the laboratory. Additionally, we learned the PPE requirements for our lab and the proper storage techniques and locations for the chemicals we use in the lab.

     Since the first step in safety is minimizing the exposure to risk, our team worked hard to eliminate risk wherever possible. We had access to a dry lab space separate from the lab where we could work on various aspects of our project that did not involve direct experimentation. This allowed us to maintain a more controlled lab space. Our team also limited the use of hazardous reagents or equipment when we had access to safer alternatives. For example, we used SYBR Safe gel stain instead of ethidium bromide so that our imaging could be done without UV.

Project Specific Safety

     Our specific project has been authorized under the Biological Use Agreement BUA-2679 filed with UCSC EH&S. Although the university granted us a BUA that allowed us to proceed with our project, we needed to create a space that was capable of BSL2. Our lab has a small room which is separated from the rest of the lab, perfect for establishing a BSL2 space apart from the main lab. Within the guidelines of our BUA, we set up this room as the location where all of our cell culturing and viral work could be completed. Although the room already contained a biosafety cabinet, we had to set up a CO2 incubator suitable for avian cell lines as well as an inverting microscope, bench-top centrifuge, and refrigerator. On top of the rules set forth in our BUA for hazardous waste and material handling, we created our own guidelines for best practices including consistent floor and work surfaces cleaning along with equipment sterilization. These guidelines ensured not only our own safety, but the safety and integrity of our samples.
     Since our project focuses on creating a more stable formulation of a live-virus vaccine, we had sections of our laboratory operate under BSL2. We separated BSL1 and BSL2 experimental procedures so that BSL2 procedures were only carried out in a smaller room within our laboratory. This room was personnel-restricted and contained our biosafety cabinet (BSC). Team members working within the BSC had barrier lab coats with pinched sleeves to ensure that their arms remained covered at all times within the BSC to protect both themselves and the experiments. Although the LaSota strain of Newcastle disease is avirulent, we followed all BSL2 procedures to ensure no virus left the BSL2 room.

     In both our BSL1 and BSL2 spaces, sterilization precautions were taken to destroy any biologics used in experiments once they were concluded. We bleached samples containing either E. coli strain (DH5-alpha or BL21 Xjb) we used before disposing of them in biohazard. Team members consistently used 70% ethanol or isopropyl alcohol to disinfect lab surfaces