Safety/Rules

Safety Rules

iGEM's Lab Safety Rules

  1. Teams must be in full compliance with iGEM's safety and security policies..

  2. Teams must use the Safety and Security Form to provide information on any risks from their project and steps taken to manage them.

  3. The Safety and Security Committee must have approved (a) Check-In Forms before a team uses parts and organisms not on the White List , and (b) animal use forms before teams use vertebrates and some invertebrates.

  4. The Instructor or Primary Contact must sign off Safety and Security Forms and animal use request forms .

  5. All deadlines for providing safety and security information must be met.

  6. Teams must follow all relevant international, regional, national, local or institutional laws, rules, regulations or policies, including national or institutional biosafety and biosecurity rules. If conducting any experiment with human subjects (including non-invasive experiments, such as surveys), teams must comply with all rules governing experiments with human subjects.

  7. Teams must work in the biosafety level appropriate for their project. If your project involves organisms and parts that can be used safely in a BSL1 lab, you should not work at higher containment levels. If this is not possible an explanation must be provided in the Safety and Security Form.

  8. Teams cannot conduct work with Risk Group 3 or 4 organisms, parts from a Risk Group 4 organism, or work in a Safety Level 3 or 4 laboratory. For 2020, teams cannot conduct work with the SARs-CoV-2 virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. This applies to both isolated virus and to human, animal or environmental samples likely to contain the virus.

  9. Teams must follow iGEM shipment requirements when submitting samples.

  10. Teams cannot release or deploy their project outside of the laboratory (including putting them in people) at any time during the competition or at the Giant Jamboree.
Safety Rules

Failure to meet any of these requirements can lead to immediate disqualification from the competition and referral to the Responsible Conduct Committee.