Team:MADRID UCM/Safety
Safety
Safety must be a priority in every aspect of our lives, specially when it comes to scientific research. Within this page you will find a brief summary of the safety measures we have taken in our team, as well as general safety concerns of our research.
General laboratory safety
All members of the iGem Madrid team agree and protect the safety in and outside the lab. To do so, MADRID_UCM team is following the standard safety protocols of the lab spaces we were working with. In addition the team has received specific formation in general safety.
Most of our project will be carried out in the laboratories of the Faculty of Biology of the Complutense University of Madrid. In addition, we also have spaces in which we develop our encapsulation part in the ICMM - CSIC. All our spaces belong to a biosafety level one. Before starting our practical part in the different spaces, all team members received safety rules and training in addition to biosecurity. In these prelab security training, we learned about emergency procedures, biosafety equipment, laboratory machinery, lab access and rules and also chemicals, fire and electrical safety. After making the course we review all we learned and which should prevent most of the potential risk associated with experiments developed.
Project Safety
We are working with two different organisms: Escherichia Coli (DH5alpha) and Synecoccocus elongatus (PCC7942 and PCC 11801). We are using both of them in order to change the way photosynthetical bioprocesses are conceived nowadays. We want to apply synthetic biology tools so we can modify the metabolism of the cyanobacteria. Apart from making a modified bacteria capable of producing butanol, we want to offer new tools for easing the engineering of phototrophic metabolism in cyanobacteria.
Most of our project will be carried out in the laboratories of the Faculty of Biology of the Complutense University of Madrid. In addition, we also have spaces in which we develop our encapsulation part in the ICMM - CSIC. All our spaces belong to a biosafety level one. Before starting our practical part in the different spaces, all team members received safety rules and training in addition to biosecurity. In these prelab security training, we learned about emergency procedures, biosafety equipment, laboratory machinery, lab access and rules and also chemicals, fire and electrical safety. After making the course we review all we learned and which should prevent most of the potential risk associated with experiments developed.
Escherichia Coli
It is one of the most standardized laboratory bacteria. The risks associated with it are low. Any concerns for E. coli DH5alpha in terms of health considerations are mitigated by its poor ability to colonize the colon and establish infections, and also by the lack of the ability to produce significant quantities of toxins that affect humans or animals.
Synecoccocus
At the level of risks to human health, no risks have been seen in human health or in the high administration of Synechococcus in mammals. In terms of environmental risks, it is not capable of forming blooms, the risk would be that by genetically modifying the antibiotic resistance genes it could be shared by other bacteria found in the same environment.