Team:BS United China/Safety

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Laboratory Safety

Realizing the importance of lab safety, all of our members in the iGEM team entitled BS_United_China have put the safety issues at highest priority and learned several essential steps to ensure everyone’s safety

Awareness of Covid-19 pandemic

All the members stayed aware of the latest information on the COVID-19 outbreak and protect ourselves with the guidelines provided by Hainan university. In addition to wear facial masks and gloves, we had also regularly and thoroughly cleaned hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water in the lab whenever needed. We had also maintained at least 1 meter (3 feet) distance between each other.

General Safety

We strictly follow the lab safety/hygiene regulations and guidelines (in Chinese, see below) issued by Hainan University, China

Fig.1 Student experimental guidelines and lab safety and hygiene management regulations by Hainan University (in Chinese)

Safe Training:

Before starting our wet-lab experiments at Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology lab in Hainan University, China, we have attended a safety training to learn the lab safety regulations and guidelines for the proper use of experimental apparatus and to avoid physical accidents. We memorized the locations of eye-washers and showers, emergence exits, chemical spill kits and fire extinguishers.

Fig.2 Lab Emergence cabinet and eye washer

Safe Lab work:

It is required for us to wear a lab coat, gloves, closed-toe shoes, and long pants whenever in the lab. We used the biosafety cabinet whenever needed and followed strictly the sterilization procedures for good lab practice (GLP).

Use of harmless microbial strains:

The bacterial strains, Escherichia Coli BL21, that we used for our project are safe to human and environment.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitously distributed pathogen that inhabits soil and water as well as animal-, human-, and plant-host-associated environments. While handling the bacteria, we store them at a biosafety cabinet and we conduct experiments involving P. aeruginosa in the clean bench under a strict supervision of the lab staff. Also, waste materials stained with P. aeruginosa are discharged into designated trash bin and reagent bottles used in experiments involving P. aeruginosa are sterilized in the autoclave.

Safety of equipment in operation

• Centrifuge
-The samples should be placed symmetrically.
-Do not over-tighten the lid.
•Sterilization pot
-After the container is used, it should be sealed in a plastic bag (with a fast knot) for uniform sterilization.
-The one on the left is used to remove garbage, and the one on the right is used for sterilization.
-Do not over-tighten the upper cover while using.
-Be careful of the high temperature and high pressure.
-It can be open only when the pressure is zero and the temperature is lower than 100 degrees Celsius (preferably lower than 90 degrees Celsius).
• refrigerator
-Do not open the refrigerator at -80°C arbitrarily (The inside of the refrigerator needs to maintain a stable temperature).
Disposal of biowastes
All the cell cultures are autoclaved priori to pull into the waste containers. All the used chemicals and consumables are classified and put into the waste plastic bags. Waste bags and containers are collected by the university professionals.

Fig.3 Lab disposal management.

Fig.4 All the cell cultures are autoclaved priori to pull into the waste containers.