Team:KEYSTONE/Safety
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Team KEYSTONE is in full compliance with the safety and security policies of the iGEM competition.
Although our product is rather harmless, we are paying high attention to perfect our project’s safety as well as to present our work regarding safety toward the public. This not only protects our team-members, relevant people, and the public. But also reduces the public’s concern and fear which might hinder public education and engagement of our project and many other Synthetic biology projects.
For the purposes mentioned above, this section will introduce three major aspects of our project’s safety, as well as information regarding Ethical-wise security. Notable risks, together with correspond solutions, are presented below.
Every team member has learned from experts about essential lab access and rules before we started our experiment. Regarding safety in the lab, relevant training is practiced separately to prevent and reduce the cost of potential accidents.
To further ensure laboratory safety, Mr. Zhu will oversee our project and closely supervising our experiment to help manage risks. He has received doctorates in chemistry at Oxford University, where he focused on the production of small molecule drugs by biocatalysts.
Our laboratory safety training and supervision from Mr. Zhu significantly decreased the chance of any severe consequences to occur. However, there are still some notable risks in our experiment which we’ve taken some steps to prevent them from happening.
- Gas chromatography experiment (GC) was conducted. There are some safety concerns when people are conducting this experiment. Firstly, the machine uses electricity. People may get an electric shock if the wire in the machine is exposed by accident. To prevent damage by electric shock, each member wears rubber insulated gloves. Secondly, when the machine is on, it produces a lot of heat. People may be burned if they are close to the back air outlet of the machine. To prevent such an accident, we’ve pasted a notification sign beside the machine to make sure our group members don’t move too close to the back air outlet. Also, the machine uses gases to produce chromatographs, and some of these gases are toxic. There is also hydrogen in the machine. If the hydrogen chamber is not concealed the hydrogen in the chamber may get out. The leaked hydrogen may lead to fire because hydrogen can be easily ignited. To prevent the leak of toxic and hydrogen gases, we check on the concealment of the machine before we launch relevant experiments.
- PCR experiment that we’ve conducted also uses electricity and may cause electric shock, which we’ve prevented by wearing rubber insulated gloves. Furthermore, liquid with DNA will be needed in the PCR machine. These liquids may lead to illness if people intake them accidentally. To prevent such an accident, we strictly follow a cleaning routine that ensures there is no remaining liquid with DNA, either on our body or at the surface area of the working space, after the experiment is conducted.
- E. coli was used for experiments producing and extracting protein and/or plasmid of LCC and bLiS. Accidental intake of E. coli may lead to diarrhea. To prevent such an accident, we strictly follow a cleaning routine that ensures there are no remaining E. coli, either on our body or at the surface area of the working space, after the experiment is conducted.
- In the plastic degrading experiment, our group used plastic powder, which is harmful to humans if it is inhaled by people into their respiratory system, leading to respiration diseases. To prevent such an accident, our group member wears masks while conducting relevant experiments.
Our final product consists of E. coli bacteria and a metal device (The Bin), which both could cause potential harm to the environment or potential users.
- Regarding E. coli, Bacteria in our device could impact the local ecosystem if it escapes from the device and enters the natural environment. Meanwhile, if the bacteria get in the people or animal water sources, humans or animals may be sick after drinking the bacteria-contaminated water resource. To prevent the bacteria from leaking, the container (The Bin) of E. coli is designed to be relatively well-concealed. It is also being built majorly by metallic materials that protect bacteria from external crashes which might cause damage to the device and further cause leak of E. coli.
- In regard of the metal device (The Bin), the shredder in the device may lead to some safety concerns. For instance, if people’s hand was drawn into the shredder, it will injure them seriously. To prevent this from happening, the opening of the bin was designed to be narrow, makes it unlikely for human hands to be able to pass through. The opening is also placed in a high position, which makes it difficult for people to place their hands in places where it might be drawn to the shredder.
The effect of the COVID pandemic has caused severe damage to global society and individuals. To protect our team-members and relevant people’s safety, also to make an effort to contribute to stopping the global spread of the virus, we have developed and adapted on a few aspects of our project correspondingly.
- Regarding our experiment, we limit the number of people in the lab at the same time by arranging a schedule that maintains the number of people in the lab within 4-6. This would help to reduce population density which helps to prevent the spread of the virus. Furthermore, we wear masks and our disinfect hand regularly while experimenting. Also, we maintain a 1-meter social distance while dining.
- Regarding meetups and human practices, specifically interviews, we’ve utilized online platforms (video call, voice call, and email) to decrease offline contacts, as well as to decrease unnecessary transfers that are risky in terms of the epidemic.
- Regarding our public educational events, we’ve paid very high attention and efforts to control the potential spread of the virus, by referring to regional and school specified policies. For instance, in our synthetic biology festival, we have provided a schedule of dining for attendees, which limits the population density of our school’s dining hall. Furthermore, we provide relevant guidance booklets to our attendees that assist in COVID relevant managements, as well as some resources such as masks and disinfectants.
Our project involves interaction with the public. Information from the public audience could be used as data and feedback that helps us to improve. They might as well be used as materials of public education. For instance, we might be recording people's reactions toward our bin. Such action involves privacy concerns, which we’ve taken into consideration.
To make sure our project does not offense individual privacy, we would ask the individual’s permission and consent before we record any information about him/her. Meanwhile, we would ask for his/her idea regarding potential releasement. For instance, one would be able to choose whether to show his/her face or to change his/her voice in our video.
Once again, team KEYSTONE is in full compliance with the safety and security policies of the iGEM competition.
