Team:XMU-China/Safety
Great importance is attached to safety in our project design. Firstly, we use E.coli as our chassis organisms, which pose no harm to individuals or environment, and do not use any other organism. E.coli DH5α, BL21 (DE3) and BL21 (DE3) pLysS are applied as the chassis when we implement the experiments of molecular cloning and expression. This year, we dedicate to show four relationships among the bacteria. The "cooperative" genes, encoding the enzyme which are capable of degrading cellulose, cenA, cex and bgl1A, are respectively transformed into the engineering bacteria so as to help these bacteria survive better under the cellulose situation. At the same time, these two types of bacteria carry different "aggressive" genes--Colicin E1 and Colicin N, who would only hurt those within the same species including closely relative bacteria but are totally harmless to human body. All the plasmids are harmless for human beings and none of our parts would raise any safety issue according to the current expertise.
The building of laboratory includes the location of emergency exits, emergency ventilation system, fire-fighting equipment, first aid kit and so on. Every year after recruiting new members, we spend a semester training them in basic laboratory operations and handling safety accidents. Laboratory coat, gloves and glasses are necessary when entering the laboratory. All culture fluid and culture medium with bacteria were processed properly to prevent the potential biological pollution. We handled all the biological materials, wastes and equipment strictly following the BSL-1 requirements, our lab is also equipped with professional operators of dangerous goods and waste biological products, they will disposal all the waste properly. We turn off the water and electricity, close window and door before we leave the lab.
At the same time, we invited laboratory safety engineer, Wenyao Shao，to join our team as an advisor and to conduct safety education for all team members when they officially entered the experimental phase consistently.
