Team:QHFZ/Safety
Safety
Safety is the foundation of setting up an experiment. Knowing the importance of laboratory safety, QHFZ did a great job ensuring the safety of experimenters and biomaterials during the experiment and protecting ourselves and experimental environment.
General laboratory safety
1) We have a list of lab rules, which functions to standardize the design of our experiment and protect ourselves. For instance, we wore normalized lab clothes and put on gloves on a daily basis. Masks were also needed, and bacteria and cell experiments were carried out in the biosafety cabinet.
2) We strictly observed the rule that food and water are not allowed in the lab and also that equipment and materials from the lab are not allowed to be brought out.
3) We also have emergency showers and fire extinguishers in our lab in order to reduce unnecessary loss when accidents occur. Moreover, our lab has a generous ventilation system. There are also multiple doors and windows to ensure good ventilation in the laboratory.
Ventilation system
Shower Fire extinguisher
4) Little toxic or harmful substances were used in this experiment. We used safe nucleic acid dye and there was no heavy metals or extremely toxic substance being used.
5) No human blood samples, urine samples, saliva samples or any other related samples were used.
6) When entering the cell room, everybody must take off their shoes and sterilize their gloves by 75% alcohol.
7) Bacteria solution was treated with disinfectant overnight before being discarded. Consumables which were contaminated with bacteria solution and cell culture medium were collected and then discarded after high-temperature sterilization.
8) There was at least one expert teacher present when there were students in the lab in order to supervise and make sure of our safety.
9)Before we entered the laboratory, our primary PI, Shiqi Wang, gave us a lecture on biosafety which provided us with basic background information.
10)For all our bacteria and cells, we used the usual biological chassis models, which are highly secure in labs, and their safety levels are 1 (E. coli).
11) There were experimenters monitoring the device once it was in operation.
Safety related to our experiment
1) In the original paper, tetrahydrofuran, Na2S2O4, NaOH and NH4Cl was used in the dyeing process. In order to avoid pollution to the laboratory environment, we chose to try the method without using tetrahydrofuran in the experiment, and carried out the whole process in the fume cupboard.
References
[1] https://2019.igem.org/Team:QHFZ-China
[2] https://2020.igem.org/Team:QHFZ-China
[3] Jeongchan Lee, Joonwon Kim , Ji Eun Song, Won-Suk Song, Eun-Jung Kim, Yun-Gon Kim, Hee-Jin Jeong, Hye Rim Kim, Kwon-Young Choi and Byung-Gee Kim. Production of Tyrian purple indigoid dye from tryptophan in Escherichia coli. Nature Chemical Biology.