Safety importance

Biosafety is the prevention of exposure to biohazards or pathogen dissemination, concerning on the issues of ecology and hygiene. Human errors, unqualified instruments, poor experimental techniques would all possibly contribute to deficient safety guarantee. Typical topics of biosafefy involve the regular audit the conformance of laboratory facilities and instruments and the executing of strict laboratory safety guidelines, etc. Working with synthetic biology experiment, especially high-security facilities and instruments are required to prevent harmful chemicals or engineered organisms from being released accidentally.

Biosafety Level of Our Laboratory

With the guidance from iGEM competition and locally safety requirements, and in order to keep our members from bio-risks and correspond to the requirements above, our laboratory is ranked as BSL-2. Biosafety Level 2 laboratory generally deal with applicable microorganisms without harmful pathogenic potential on healthy adults. Additionally, all of the parts and species we utilized, which are listed in the chart below, are environmentally friendly, not potentially harmful or pathogenic to healthy adult individuals. Before entering the laboratory, everyone can notice the reminders as follows.

Lab Equipment

Our lab is equipped with advanced instruments to ensure safety, including laminar flow hood, autoclaves, and personal protective equipment. We also set trashes especially for polluted wastes. And we have medical bins containing some certain medical wastes at any time.

how to avoid the Escherichia coli coming in our normal life?

Before we do the experiment, we will have a careful check to make sure that everything is eligible. After the check, we will carry out a thorough disinfection to ensure that no bacteria contaminate the engineered bacteria and laboratory. After we finish the experiment, we will carefully store the experimental results in the designated place, and carry out a thorough sterilization for useless engineered bacteria plate before put them into medical waste bin.

how to kill the Escherichia coli exhaustively after purifying Protein ?

Due to the requirement for sanitation and epidemic prevention, disinfectants are very important for ours laboratory. Lab-specific Chlorination tablet are used to kill the Escherichia coli. Every time we use it to make sure Escherichia coli completely die. And after we pour into the sewer, the sewer in the laboratory building has another special equipment for sterilization.

Experiment operation

During the entire experiment, each member strictly followed the criteria as follow: Fire, when electric heaters and microwaves using, it should not be left without supervision. Our lab is also well equipped with fire hydrants, fire extinguishers, and fire blankets to make sure that the fire could be extinguished within a short time. Our safety instructor has trained everyone how to use these extinguishing equipment. We have also studied the using method of alcohol lamp, eyewash and other essential safety procedures. Bacteria should be operated in laminar flow hood to secure isolating from environment. Wastes containing living organisms should be autoclaved before throwing into medical wastes bins, and transfer to a certain institution for disposal. Glass apparatus should be disinfected regularly. Rubber gloves, lab coats, long pants, and shoes should be equipped to cover the entire skin when conducting experiment. Water, fire, electricity and air conditioner should be examined whenever an experiment is suspended. The laboratory should be cleaned at least once a week.

Safety tutoring

Before our team members start the experiment, we have been trained with safety issues systematically. For example, we have been trained how to use extinguishers and fire blankets; also we've learned the rules of waste cleaning and made a schedule for it. We give sincere thanks to Professor Ren from Shandong University for offering the training session.