Safety
1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of
• public safety, or
• environmental safety?
Before the start of iGEM, all the team members were required to attend a laboratory safety talk given by the Safety Office of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to understand the principles of working safely in the lab. Also a workshop was given to us to learn the proper use of the equipment and materials, and we all have obtained a certificate to operate in a Biosafety Level 1 laboratory. Our project involves using the non-virulent E. coli DH5α, TOP10, BL21, and K12 strains which are handled in a qualified laboratory. Also we do not use any highly toxic and carcinogenic compound such as ethidium bromide, and sodium azide. To avoid contaminating the public, we ought to prevent bacteria leakage. Disposal of gloves and removal of laboratory coats were necessary before stepping out of the laboratory, and our laboratory is under a negative pressure to allow an unidirectional airflow only from the outside. As for minimizing the environmental pollution, all laboratory wastes and bacteria stocks were autoclaved prior to disposal.
2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?
Our biobricks do not raise any safety concern as they are not involved in any pathogenic mechanisms that trigger infection in human body.
3. 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?
The University Safety Office of the Chinese University of Hong Kong visited our laboratory and conducted a risk assessment.
The working area and the equipment were inspected and found to be in a satisfactory order in general. Materials are non-pathogenic stereotype of E. coli, associated culture media, and PCR analysis, and the appropriate usage of these were taught in the workshop. Moreover, the use of chemicals in our laboratory has been well recorded, and the material safety data sheet (MSDSs(with the “s”?)) has been examined by the safety office.
Our working environment improved according to the safety concern as:
• Cytotoxic fume hood was left to be unused
• Functional flow at the eye-wash station was ensured through informing the department.
The officers concluded that the project is at Biosafety Level 1 and has a low risk.
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?
One of the safety issues of the bioengineered cells is the leakage of bacteria which cause environmental pollution. To counter any accidental release of these bacteria, a controlled suicide system can be embedded in the biobrick design. One of the potential methods is the usage of CRISPR/Cas system to target and cleave the transformed plasmid; and specifically targeting on the antibiotic resistance genes on the biobricks can prevent horizontal gene transfer caused by DNA fragments released from apoptotic pathways.
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