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Revision as of 13:19, 24 September 2012

Safety

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

– researcher safety,

– public safety, or

– environmental safety?

We operate on the high safety standards given by the university, also we don’t used any highly toxic, acidic, carcinogen or in other ways dangerous substances in our project. Our project is mainly based on producing a toolbox of biological parts not on creating genetically modified organisms. The only organisms used are standard E.coli strains for Plasmid amplification and HEK 293 Cells for prove of concept experiments. Furthermore our finished biobricks are not capable of increasing the pathogenity of any one of these organisms and as lab organisms they are not capable of living outside in the lab.

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

– did you document these issues in the Registry?

– how did you manage to handle the safety issue?

– How could other teams learn from your experience?

No, our produced biobricks are not dangerous as they are, they can only be used to form gene modulating enzymes and a normal scientific usage holds no safety issues.

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

– If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project?

Yes, at our University we have the “Stabsstelle Sicherheit” as controlling authority to everything that has to do with safety. Because our project is not about creating genetically modified organisms but creating single enzymes that don’t increase pathogenity of host organsims there where no concerns about any safety.

Also we operate in our lab on strict safety guidelines given from the state authority.

[http://www.rp.baden-wuerttemberg.de/servlet/PB/show/1103199/rpk24_laborrichtlinien.pdf| www.rp.baden-wuerttemberg.de/servlet/PB/show/1103199/rpk24_laborrichtlinien.pdf]

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?

In our Lab we especially were concerned about carcinogenity because most threads in this area are invisible and you will notice there effects when it is already to late. To protect our team we banned ethidum bromide completely and used next generation DNA stains like gel red and midori green. As another measure we only used nitrile gloves and while cutting gels at ultraviolet light only the person cutting the gel stayed in the room wearing uv protective clothes and face protection.