Team:iBowu-China/Safety
Safety is the top priority in every lab. Every member in our team has been trained thoroughly before participating in any experiment. Our team not only strictly follows the general safety protocols but also comes up with protocols that is specific to our project in order to make sure that experiments proceed safely.
This is a general level 1 experiment safety procedure provided by Qing Huan University. As these instructions are the core of experimental safety, every team member will be tested according to these protocols before entering the lab.
1. The laboratory as a whole remains neat and orderly
2. Laboratory should not have patch panels in series and landing
3. When working in the laboratory, wear appropriate personal protective equipment as needed.
4. Containers containing waste liquid should be clearly marked and placed in a safe location
5. Laboratory waste containing cells and genetically engineered bacteria must be sterilized before disposal, and laboratory consumables or garbage must not be taken out of the laboratory.
1. Anyone who goes to the laboratory for testing must be guided by the laboratory management personnel, strictly abide by the safety rules, and understand the importance of safety.
2. Toxic, harmful, flammable, explosive materials and precious metals should be used in strict accordance with the SOP operating rules.
3. Laboratory personnel must be familiar with water, electricity, gas management and switching. When leaving the laboratory, switches, water sources, gas sources, doors and windows of non-continuous electrical appliances and lighting must be shut down in time.
4. While the experiment is in progress, the experimenter must not leave the laboratory without authorization. If you need to leave, you should refer to other students for care and explain the precautions.
5. In the event of accidents such as poisoning, fire, explosion, etc., do not panic, deal with it in time according to safety rules, report to the teacher, find out potential reasons that lead up to the accident, and record the accident afterwards.
6. Every day, the last student to leave the laboratory must record on the experimental record book, and the person in charge of laboratory safety management need to check the record. For those cases where the record is not recorded, the value should be reconciled with the time and reminder. The record is saved by the person in charge of security management on a monthly basis for inquiries.
7. The person in charge of the laboratory is highly responsible for regularly checking the items that he is responsible for, handling the problems in a timely manner, and communicating with the mentors on a regular basis.
8. Persons in charge of laboratory sanitary and safety, and corresponding mentors should regularly update the sanitary and safety of the experiment (e.g. laboratory safety hazards, personal laboratory finishing, laboratory health, etc.).
1. Laboratory personnel are obliged to maintain a safe and hygienic environment in the laboratory (including the student office). Before leaving the laboratory and student office, responsible personnel each day should remember to clean up the garbage and return items before leaving.
2. After finishing each experiment, make sure to wash the utensils in time, put the equipment back to the original position, dispose waste and waste liquid according to the regulations, and cut off the power supply and waterway.
1. This project does not involve designing human pathogenic pathogens; therefore, it is safer due to the absence of highly toxic reagents during the experiment.
2. Before entering the laboratory, students should take protective measures, wear lab coats and gloves. When leaving the laboratory, please take off the lab coat and gloves, do not eat and drink in the laboratory, and do not take test items away from the laboratory.
3. Lab tests can only be carried out by people who have been trained to master the use of relevant instrument reagents.
4. Pay attention to the trim when using the centrifuge. If the centrifuge is in an abnormal state (such as violent shaking and loud noise), please close the inspection in time.
5. The nucleic acid dye solution (Gel-green) used in nucleic acid gel electrophoresis can bind DNA and is harmful to the human body. Please be cautious.
6. After the experiment is finished, return the reagents to the original setting, check whether all the pipettes are back in range. Then organize the desktop, turn off the power of the instruments that are not in use, clean up and pack all the waste, label them, send them to the garbage room, and inform the waste disposal personal any chemical or biological component that needs special management.
In order to prevent safety issues that might raise in our project—Bio control of soft rot, we designed safety protocols specific to our project.
All members should take special attention to procedure 5: Gel green used in electrophoresis can combine with DNA, which is harmful to human body.
After plasmid extraction, we will use autoclave to kill all the E-coli that we used in during cultivation of bacteria.
DMSO is used to hydrolyze AHL after testing our results. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a sulfur-containing organic compound, which is a colorless and odorless transparent liquid at room temperature. DMSO is a hygroscopic combustible liquid. When using DMSO, we keep it away from fire. We also wear PPE when using DMSO.
During recycle, centrifuge is used frequently. Protocol 4 reminds our researchers to maintain balance when using the centrifuge. If centrifuge shakes intensely or emits loud noise, PD member in the lab should turn of the machine.
To keep our lab clean, members are assigned to clean the lab after every day’s experiment. Lab cleaners need to follow procedure in order to prevent solutions from contamination. Before leaving the lab, cleaners have to sign sheets checking the lab according to the protocol.
We use cell-free technology to assemble our final product. Because cell free technology enables us to produce bio-product without using any living bacteria， our product is safer comparing to other bio-products which use living cells.