Team:Western Canada/Safety
Safety
Safe Lab Work
The Western iGEM team took all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the lab members as well as the environment. All of our personnel were trained in all of the safety modules required by the University of Western Ontario to work in a biosafety level 2 laboratory. The members of our wet lab team were trained by more experienced students in routine laboratory techniques, and at least one senior member of the team was present when the experiments were being executed so that the junior members always had someone to refer to if necessary.
Our lab space was generously provided by Dr. David Edgell, and the team had the opportunity to conduct our experiments under the mentorship and guidance of Dr. Edgell himself, as well as the graduate students in the Edgell and Karas lab. Our laboratory space was kept clean and tidy, not only to minimize hazards in our work area, but also because our bench is located in a common are in the laboratory. Additionally, the team had access to a biosafety cabinet, where we routinely inoculated media to minimize the risks of contamination of our samples.
Safe Project Design
We took safety into consideration in regards to our project design, as exemplified by our choice of chassis: non-pathogenic Escherichia coli EPI300, which is a commonly used lab-adapted strain for cloning protocols.