Team:VIT Vellore/Safety

From 2012.igem.org


Home Team Official Team Profile Project Parts Submitted to the Registry Modeling Notebook Safety Attributions


1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:

  • Researcher safety

All experiments were carried out by GRAS certified bacteria and in sterile lab conditions. Arsenic Oxide was used for a few tests and was stored in proper container and handled using sufficient care.

  • Public Safety

No toxic chemicals are used in the designed product. Sewage is used, and should be handled with care as required.

  • Environmental Safety

There is very little output waste after running the fuel cell for a long time and this can be used as feed for biogas production and is hence safely removed from environment.

====2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise safety issues?

No.

3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

Yes, the School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT has an Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)and VIT has provided us with Biosafety level I labs for our use as well. They cautioned us on our handling of the output of the fuel cell after a full cycle and instructed us to arrange for proper disposal of the waste. As the fuel cell uses modification of only odor generators, it can be safely used in a rural setting as it is intended and the output waste can be incinerated in a biogas plant thus providing a means to be useful as well as proper removal of the novel genetic material from the environment.

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? No.