As with any project involving culturing bacteria, appropriate safety measure were taken with our project. Though none of the bacteria we work with are human pathogens or environmental liabilities, it is possible that unwanted contaminants could be unintentionally cultured in large volumes. Therefore, we treat every culture as if it were dangerous and take important precautions, such as wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), cleaning up any spills with 10% bleach or 70% ethanol, and autoclaving all culture tubes and plates before disposing of their contents.
Whenever the team was performing procedures, everybody wore safety goggles and gloves. We followed all procedures very carefully, and we were circumspect with cleanup after experiments.
The team was supervised by Mrs. Standeven, Dr. Styczynski, and Mrs. Cochran the entire time we were in the Georgia Tech lab.
====1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:====
*researcher safety,
*public safety, or
*environmental safety
Our project uses E. Coli bacteria. According to the World Health Organization Laboratory Biosafety Manual, our project is at a level 1.
If the project goes according to plan, there is no risk to the environment or the general public. There is a slight risk to team members due to the use of ethidium bromide when running gel electrophoresis. Therefore, we follow all safety procedures very carefully. For example, team members change their gloves after using anything at the ethidium bromide workstation. All of our team members have recieved biosafety training at Lambert High School and have taken a safety test. Additionally, several members of the team have completed Right to Know, General Lab Safety, Biohazard training and Recombinant DNA Safety Training offered by Georgia Institute of Technology.
If our contamination procedures go wrong, it will pose no threat to the environment because all of our bacteria is safe.
=====Guidance:=====
#Then consider risks to team members, publics and environment if the project does not go according to plan. What are risks if safety measures such as containment procedures go wrong and organisms or parts are released? What are risks to security from malicious misuse? How are you addressing such risks?
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====2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise safety issues? ====
No. None of the BioBricks that we used this year raise any safety issues.
=====Guidance:=====
Please reference the biosafety level of parts. If you are working with anything other than a BSL1 organism, take extra care with this question. Your nation regulates handling and transfer of pathogens and parts associated with pathogenicity. For a list of regulated organisms, see the [http://www.australiagroup.net/en/biological_agents.html Australia Group website].
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====3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution? ====
*If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project?
*If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?
We have a biosafety committee at our school which oversees our safety procedures. They approved our project.
=====Guidance:=====
The iGEM Safety Committee is not a substitute for national and local university institional biosafety committees
# Does your university have a Biosafety Committee or equivalent? Please provide a link to regulations and local requirements.
# Is your project in compliance with national regulations and university requirements?
# If you are working with any organisms or parts requiring containment arrangements above BSL 1 or equivalent, have you consulted with your Institutional Biosafety Committee regarding your project?
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====4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering? ====
=====Guidance:=====
This is an open-ended space for you to consider and suggest ways of improving safety or safety awareness at iGEM and beyond. Some iGEM teams have offered ideas (and sometimes full projects) to limit gene flow, to create software for screening pathogens, and to reduce reliance on antibiotic resistant markers. Other iGEM projects have discussed concerns that might arise if the project succeeded and became widely used, as commercial product or other means of distribution. Some iGEM projects have discussed risks that might materialize if the knowledge generated or methods developed were to become more widely available.
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