Team:NCTU Formosa/Safety
Overview
Throughout our project, we obeyed the iGEM safety rules. When conducting our experiments, all of the organisms used for developing our product stayed in our lab. To ensure safety during future use of our device outside the lab, we made sure that no biomaterials were spread to the environment.
Laboratory Safety
Safety Training inside the Laboratory
Before we entered the lab, all of our team members had taken the "Laboratory Bio-Safety Training" course, "Laboratory Safety & Hygiene Training" course and “Hazard Communication Training” course and received respective certificates from NCTU. Furthermore, all experiments were strictly examined by the NCTU laboratory management system to ensure all procedures were safe.
Level and Rule of the laboratory
Our experiments were done in a BSL1 laboratory. Also, when we performed experiments in the laboratory, our advisers provided training regarding the correct operation of instruments, methods preventing containment, and ways to deal with laboratory waste. What's more, they supervised us during our experiments to ensure safety.
All equipment used to experiment with and contain E. coli were sterilized with alcohol or bleach properly, and experiments were operated in Laminar flow hood to prevent any leakage or pollution of bacteria. We familiarized ourselves with and followed Taiwan bio-safety laws.
Device Safety
Safety of our Device
For our device, sunlight is used not only to drive our E. coli, but also to sterilize our E. coli via UV and high temperature. Our device is multi-layered to prevent E. coli from leaking. We confirmed that E. coli would die in minutes under sunlight, therefore ensuring that our E. coli are limited to the incubator in our device.
High Temperature Sterilization Test
We conducted water boiling test and dry bath test to prove that our modified E. coli could be successfully sterilized. After boiling at 100 °C for 5 minutes, we spread on LB agar plate, and incubated at 37°C for 16 hours. The results show no living E. coli on the plate.
Figure 1: Result of sterilization experiment (5 minutes heated)