Team:SDU-Denmark/Safety
Safety
Laboratory safety
Our team has a laboratory technician associated, who we can always contact about questions, whether they are about procedures or about safety risks. If someone is insecure about the proper safety regarding an experiment, we are asked to consult the lab technician before proceeding.
Everybody on the team got a superficial lab introduction about the safety precautions.
The dedicated lab team had an in-depth safety introduction explaining how to behave in the laboratory, how to keep a sterile environment, how to work with genetically modified organisms, and how to handle the waste we create.
Product safety
Biology:
Our final product will not contain any living bacteria, as we only use our genetically modified E.coli to express Cas12a and Cas13a proteins, which we can harvest and then incorporate in our product. This way we avoid contact between the GMO and the consumer.
In the laboratory, we have used PMSF, which is marked as toxic, and should not be swallowed or come in direct contact with tissue. If the product were to be sold on the market, we would accommodate this by incorporating PMSF in one of the pills that people press directly into the cup, so the consumer only touches the plastic that surrounds the pill. Furthermore, we provide a pair of gloves to the user for extra security. You can read more thoughts about the implementation here: proposed implementation
Human errors:
There is always a risk that some people will use our product wrongly and therefore gets a false result. To minimize this risk we provide a comprehensive user manual, which guides the user through the test.
Ethicals:
We are aware of the ethical prospects of a test/device telling people, whether or not they have aggressive cancer, as people have the right to not know.
More info can be found on our ethics page
Corona safety
Due to the special situation with the global pandemic, we had to take extra precautions, both at the general university grounds and when working on different aspects of our project. The University was locked down during the spring, which stalled the laboratory work of the project. The pandemic has also influenced our outreach and human practice work. The main part of our interviews has been conducted online.
The overall guidelines have changed over the course of the summer, so at different time periods, different safety measures have been used. Luckily, Denmark has not had any major outbreaks, which allowed us to go into the lab from mid-June. Here the overall safety precautions both from the university and the government are shown:
Safety precautions from March to mid-June
No students allowed on campus – For us this meant no physical lab work and only online meetings through Zoom.
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Maximum 10 persons assembled in public areas
Safety precautions from mid-June to start July
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Keep at least 2 meters distance to other people
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Follow the guidelines from the danish health authority (see picture)
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Only 4 iGEM’ers allowed in the lab at the same time
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In the laboratory lunchroom only every second chair can be in use
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If any of us uses public transport it is encouraged to use face masks
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Maximum 50 persons assembled in public areas
Safety precautions from start-July to mid-september
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Keep at least 1 meter distance to other people
Follow the guidelines from the danish health authority (see picture)
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In the laboratory lunchroom only every second chair can be in use
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If any of us uses public transport it is encouraged to use face masks
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Maximum 100 persons assembled in public areas
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From mid-august it became a requirement to use face masks in public transport
Safety precautions from mid-september to the end of october
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Keep at least 1 meter distance to other people
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Follow the guidelines from the danish health authority (see picture)
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In the laboratory lunchroom only every second chair can be in use
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If any of us uses public transport it is encouraged to use face masks
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If any of us go out to eat at restaurants or pick up take-away, it is required to use face masks
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Maximum 50 persons assembled in public areas
