Team:NJMU-China/Safety

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Overview

NJMU-China fully understood the importance of working safely and securely which is the core of responsible research and innovation. We have considered all our potential risks that happened during project design, lab work and human practice and made preparations in advance.

Safe Project Design

In our pre-research, we noticed the fact that parents were hindered by too many social-psychological factors before seeking medical help and having their children examined. For example, they are afraid of rumors and stigmatization towards their children.

Our product is designed for families who are suspicious of their children’s autism-like behaviors but afraid of being diagnosis because of various social factors. It gives the chance of being test at home as soon as they detect the behavior changes.

Current diagnosis methods are mainly based on behaviors that are rather difficult as they mainly base on recalled information gathered from parents, while our test strip, a non-invasive and metabolite-based screening method, is more convenient and have better privacy.

Safe Lab Work

We strictly follow all of iGEM's and our University’s safety and security rules. We would transform the engineered serotonin-biosensor plasmids, which are derived from the qurom sensing (QS) system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, into our chassis organisms E.coli DH5 alpha and BL21 strains. We will test whether they can effectively respond to the presence of serotonin. Either E.coli DH5 alpha or BL21 are not pathogenic organism,and the contamination could be effectively controlled with proper methods. Our PIs, Prof. Chuansu and Prof. Xingyin Liu reviewed every proposals and protocols of expreiments to be carried out. Wet-lab team’s members have one year or more laboratory experience. And we have received comprehensive biosafety training before.

Human Practice on Safety

Our HP is mainly around the volunteer work at Haizhixing Autism Rehab Center. After contacting the special-education teachers there in advance, we have been informed of several things we need to be cautious about like do not let the child be over-excited, making sure they are playing within our vision. We pay special attention to avoid photographing the front face of every child. We wrote the informed consent to each parent, which let them understand our project and ensure the protection of children's private information. In addition, we keep confidential all information of parents during the interview to prevent other influences caused by the disclosure of their information.