Team:USP SaoCarlos-Brazil/Safety

IARA

SAFETY

INTRODUCTION

The iGEM USP São Carlos team has a major concern with safety in the laboratory. All members received safety and security training during the undergraduate course.
We all know how critical it is to follow safety protocols while performing any activity in the laboratory to mitigate any risk associated with the contamination of people or the environment.

LABORATORY SAFETY

During the realization of the IARA project, our team used laboratories of three groups of Sao Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC/USP): Optics Group, Molecular Biophysics “Sérgio Mascarenhas” Group and Crystallography Group.
The first laboratory was intended for the hardware construction procedures of our project, so no genetically modified organisms (GMO's) were manipulated in this laboratory. Even so, all members who worked on obtaining coconut fiber and building the filter model used personal protective equipment in the laboratory and all members were qualified to perform the protocols.
In the Molecular Biophysics laboratory and Crystallography laboratory, all experiments were performed with the handling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This lab has biosafety level 1 and that was enough to perform the procedures. Before our team went to work, the Molecular Biophysics Lab technicians offered laboratory safety training, which also included an introduction to using the lab machinery.

GALLERY

PROJECT SAFETY

During the development of IARA project, our team (including team members, PI’s, instructor’s and advisors) work together to choose organisms and parts that offer no harm for any human or for environment.
The aim of our project is to solve a environment problem. Therefore, we were careful to use only whitelist organisms, both having Biosafety level 1. We worked in the lab with Escherichia coli DH5α for the cloning steps and B. Escherichia coli BL21 as our final expression system.
As we intend to use our genetically modified organism in a water filter, our team decided that it would be better to ensure that no organism could be alive in the water after treatment. For this, we have included in the hardware design a UV filter to ensure the safe use of our biofilter.

REFERENCES