Team:ULaVerne Collab/Safety
Safety Statement
We are trying to make a cheap, affordable form of insulin to help contribute to the growing problem of overly-expensive insulin and related products. We are trying to be similar to already current industrial practices and are using E. coli DH5alpha and BL21, both risk-level one non-pathogenic chassis, to help produce insulin. Additionally, we are using CHO-K1 to be treated with the produced insulin and observe the outcome.
Mention of Lab Safety
We work in a lab that is shared with other professors and other research groups due to limited space. One of these research groups deals with human blood samples thus the lab follows all BSL-2 regulations and is a BSL-2 lab. Even though we are working with materials that would only constitute a BSL-1 lab, due to the limited space we are working in this lab.
Safety Concerns
Synthetic biology is becoming easier and cheaper to perform, so experiments in synthetic biology need to keep three concepts in mind. First, the biosafety of a project or how well the scientists and facilities involved are protected from the possible exposure to hazardous elements. Second the biosecurity of a project, or the safety of mind for the masses about the possibilities of a project used as either a bioweapon or a way to harm other people. Third the dual-access of our project. Since our experiment will be made public for anyone to see, we need to worry about the possibility of making this information public harmful if there is a possibility of our project being used with malevolent intent.
Concerns of Bio-Safety
We follow strict rules that have been listed above to ensure the safety of our scientists and other personnel in the facilities. Our research labs follow the guidelines of BSL-2, and we adhere to our BSL-1 methods and rules for our safety. We also made sure to follow all rules and ensuring proper protection when dealing with potentially hazardous materials such as acids, corrosives, flammables, or carcinogens.
Concerns of Bio-Security
We are dealing with insulin, a relatively safe product designed to help people suffering from diabetes mellitus. Our goal for this project is to create a cheaper and better version of insulin, and we have not focused on the commercialization or distribution of our proposed product. However, we recognize the push for more local insulin generation as we have been contacting members of the OpenInsulin Project for guidance.
Additionally to ensure the security of the environment, all waste was either bleached or splashed with 70% ethanol, then put into non-spill red biohazard bags for autoclaving ensuring any modified E. coli is killed and cannot escape the lab when we sent the sealed bag to the autoclave. Additionally, all experiments done are kept within the lab room and if they are moved between lab rooms, then we ensure that the lab materials are either sterile, sealed, or moved with caution between one lab room to the other.
Concerns of Dual Access
A concern with the dual-access of our project comes from the people who would want to monetize a genetically engineered insulin at home and sell locally. The concern would come from our project outlining how we made the insulin, and a person creating it at home and trying to sell it to individuals at cheaper prices than the more common pharmaceutical brands. This can be dangerous from having not FDA-approved versions of insulin being sold without any regulation or tracking and a contamination of the product can risk the lives of the consumers.