Team:ETH Zurich/Safety

From 2012.igem.org

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Contents

Questions I

Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?

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Working in the lab entails certain risks for lab members. Our project does not raise specific chemical and biological safety issues beyond those risks normally involved in working in a microbiological environment of biosafety level 1. Our experiments are carried out in a S1 lab minding general precautionary measures and safety standards. This implies wearing cloves, potective glasses and lab coats. We are using E.coli strains TOP10 and JT2 (MC4100-derived) for our experiments, both of which are not pathogenic. All material contaminated with bacteria is autoclaved at 121 °C and 1 bar overpressure.

Our lab work also includes using UV light to trigger our sensor. UV light is a known carcinogen and can cause skin irritation, therefore special precautions are needed. In general we are using the UV lamp in a darkhood, which poses no hazards as no UV light can escape. While handling a portable UV lamp, we use special glasses and avoid any exposure to the skin.

Risks to the safety and health of the general public and Environmental quality if released by design or accident?

Though we pay attention to keep our system isolated from the external environment, there is always the possibility of modified organisms leaking by accident. Therefore a (horizontal) transfer of genetic material between our bacteria and other bacteria in the wild is possible. Instead of causing a risk to health of the general public, our device aims for protecting the skin and prevent damage from UV radiation. Testing is needed to guarantee the safety of our device before it is used to this purpose.

Risks to security through malicious misuses by individuals, groups or states?

Our system is designed to sense UV light and produce a fluorescent protein or a pigment as output. We do not see a realistic way to use this system to cause harm. With a malicious intent, it is nonetheless possible to switch the reporter to a more dangerous gene.

Question II

Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?

No, our new BioBrick parts do not raise any safety issues apart from the fact that the switch needs UV light to be activated. Warnings will be put in the Registry for people that will use our part. We managed the UV light safety issues as described above.

Questions III

Does your university have a Biosafety Committee or equivalent?

Our lab follows the general- and bio-safety guidelines provided by the Safety, Security, Health and Environmental Protection (SSHE) unit of ETH Zurich (http://www.sicherheit.ethz.ch/index_EN). For an S1 lab two relevant documents are the Safety and Waste Disposal Manual (http://www.sicherheit.ethz.ch/docs/health_docs/safety_manual_en.pdf) and the Biosafety-Concept (http://www.sicherheit.ethz.ch/docs/concepts_safety_at_work_hygiene/Biosicherheitskonzept).

Have you consulted with your Institutional Biosafety Committee regarding your project?

We are not working with any organisms or parts which would require containment arrangements above BSL1.

Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project?

All iGEM team member attended lectures on lab safety. There was no special training for iGEM because all people already attended a special training on chemical and biological safety in the lab and a fire prevention course in previous practical courses.

Question IV

Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions?

One important thing is to keep genetically modified organism (GMOs) isolated form the environment. It is crucial to optimize all steps during the project to avoid the leaking of used organisms. Obeying the general safety standards has been effective in the past handling GMOs.

To augment safety, another approach lies in employing only such modified organisms that can be sustained in a controlled lab environment. The growth of such bacteria depends on a simple chemical supplement to the medium which is not present in the environment

In the case of our project that aims for being used to protect human skin, one needs ample experiments to guarantee environmental safety.


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