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Team:LMU-Munich/Laboratory Safety
The LMU-Munich team is exuberantly happy about the great success at the World Championship Jamboree in Boston. Our project Beadzillus finished 4th and won the prize for the "Best Wiki" (with Slovenia) and "Best New Application Project".
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Laboratory Safety
For iGEM 2012, teams are asked to detail how they approached any issues of biological safety associated with their projects. Specifically, teams should consider the following questions:
1) Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
* a)researcher safety,
* b)public safety, or
* c)environmental safety?
2) Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,
* a) did you document these issues in the Registry?
* b) how did you manage to handle the safety issue?
* c)How could other teams learn from your experience?
3) Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?
* a)If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project?
* b)If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?
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?
Answers:
In general:
To assure safe working practice throughout the competition, every team member participated in a general safety meeting regarding good laboratory practice and working with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including storage and disposal. We work only with non-hazardous, non-pathogenic organisms like Escherichia coli (lab strain XL1 blue) and Bacillus subtilis (W168). In the lab, we wear a lab coat and single-use gloves. When working with hazardous chemicals (e.g. liquid N2) we wear goggles as well. Furthermore, dangerous substances are stored and handled in designated rooms in order to assure the safety of the researchers.
For the protection of the public and the environment against hazardous substances, all GMO-contaminated waste is inactivated by autoclavation. Before leaving the laboratory, every researcher cleans and disinfects his/her hands. Moreover, we leave the windows closed and do not discard any dangerous substances in the sink.
Question 1
Our biobricks contain inducible promotors, regulators and reporter genes. None of them are able to cause illnesses or threaten humans in any other way. Most inserts are also derived from non-pathogenic, non-hazardous organisms. The amplified and cloned fragments again belong to the GMO safety class S1.
