Health and safety training

Before starting experimental work, we have identified chemical/biological Hazards and Risks. We consider that having a proper training in safety and security at the beginning of our experimental work prepared us to be more organized, responsible for our actions and respectful for those of others.
We have followed all instructions from our institution concerning the lab electrical and gas systems. Emergency numbers are displayed near the phones. No one was allowed to work alone in the laboratory. In addition, the French system provides all young adults with a training in first-aid and safety. Moreover, several students, advisors and instructors have the life-saving diploma and are also trained for firefighting. A specific formation for handling chemicals and modified bacteria carrying antibiotic resistance genes was given to each student before starting the bench work.

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Waste management

Chemical wastes. All reagents were eliminated in the appropriate waste recovery barrels.



Biological wastes. We used the autoclave of the microbiology teaching platform to decontaminate our biological solid and liquid wastes : no bacteria, modified or not, are released in the environment.



We took specific safety measures for the use of Ethidium Bromide (EtBr). Ethidium bromide is known to act as a mutagen because it intercalates within the double strand DNA helix. To avoid the dissemination of EtBr in the lab, it was stored and used in the same room where the electrophoresis gels were revealed. EtBr was NEVER incorporated into the electrophoresis gels, but used in staining bath instead to avoid the contamination of electrophoresis equipment. Specific trash barrel for genotoxic contaminated material were used for EtBr-contaminated material.

To sum up: GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICES: PROTECT YOURSELF, PROTECT PEOPLE AROUND YOU, PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT.

"The Bacillus subtilis species has a long history of safe use. It has been granted Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) status by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and is part of the authoritative list of microorganisms with a documented history of safe use in food established by the International Dairy Federation (IDF) in collaboration with the European Food and Feed Cultures Association (EFFCA) in 2002 and updated in 2012." [1] B. subtilis is known to produce endospores [2] that are resistant to different treatments (heat, UV irradiation…) [3]. Spores of a variety of species are of major concern for the food industry, and even if B. subtilis is non-pathogenic, use of a sporulating strain can be a problem in food industry because spores are resistant to most cleaning procedure and thus can get out of usual control. Therefore, we plan to introduce a mutation in the B. subtilis strain 168 to disrupt the sporulation process and offer an asporulating version of Biofilm Killer for food application.

Our institution (INSA Lyon) has, as every public institute, a general safety and health committee that deals, among others, with issues related to GMOs and that allowed their handling. All students have followed a 4-hour general health and safety course on how to handle chemical, biological and fire risks among others, completed by additional biosafety and lab training though the year by the professors, in relation to their course. Our institution does not have any specific biosafety rule but complies with all French biosafety regulations.



As far as the legal aspect is concerned, there is no specific legal framework for synthetic biology in France yet. Since our bacteria are Genetically Modified Organisms, their use is restricted by the legal framework about the use of GMOs, which is based on the precautionary principle. Even though synthetic biology doesn’t have a specific regulation framework yet, discussions are taking place about this issue at the French government and National Assembly levels to define a specific regulation. A first congress and public audition (Program) has occurred in May 2011.

Beyond traditional physical containment (by restricting organisms to a physical space), disabling of the organisms in some way so as to ensure they cannot survive if accidentally or incidentally introduced into the environment. Such disabling leads to chemical containment (based on engineering "kill switches" or reliance on nutrients not found in the wild) or informational containment (by making genetic information incompatible between natural and synthetic species).
The Lyon-INSA team proposes to provide a “safety kit” to each team at the beginning of their experimental work. We think that if applied, this option would strongly diminish the contamination risks or gene dissemination into the nature.
This kit would contain a collection of “disabled chassis” for the most popular chassis (E. coli, B. subtilis…) that could be used to receive the DNA constructions.
As engineering these chassis is not easy, we suggest to create a new “ Best Safety Device” reward to motivate iGEM teams.