Team:SYSU-CHINA/Safety

Overview

Safety has always been our number one priority. We adhere to the official IGEM safety rules and policies for both the design and follow-up of experiments. In addition, we also participated in and carefully studied the laboratory safety training course of our institute.

From ensuring that the microorganisms used in the project experiments are strictly controlled and that laboratory personnel are not exposed to pathogens or toxic substances in their operations, to strictly preventing the leakage of experimental microorganisms and toxic substances, we have done sufficient consideration and preparation in the project design stage and the experimental stage. All work carried out by the project is carried out in the laboratory and does not involve any out-of-laboratory operations or human trials.

Strick Safe Rules and Regulation

Sun Yat-sen University has formulated strict and standardized laboratory safety guidelines and provided adequate laboratory safety training for freshmen. In addition, inspectors often patrol laboratories to ensure that there are no illegal or dangerous operations, and warn and criticize experimenters for illegal operations. The above measures effectively ensure the safety of laboratories and laboratory personnel.(See figure 1)

Figure 1. Measures for the Administration of Laboratory Safety and Environmental Protection of Sun Yat-sen University

For more information, please click here: http://sbc.sysu.edu.cn/article/125

Safe Project Design

We take into account all aspects of safety factors in the experimental design, combined with the actual situation of our laboratory. From the initial construction of bacterial clones to the subsequent cell experiments, safety factors are considered from the aspects of operation and experimental site. The use of toxic and harmful reagents is almost completely avoided.

In the experimental process of the project, we strictly confirmed the use method and sequence of all kinds of reagents, and clearly required that toxic reagents, microbiological experiments and cell experiments should be carried out in ventilation cabinets, ultra-clean worktables and cell rooms, respectively. The detailed division of personnel is formulated according to the actual situation of each group.

We also considered how to carry out the closing work after the completion of each experiment, including all kinds of waste reagents and how to deal with them. There are corresponding operation guidelines and treatment instruments for sharp wastes, toxic wastes and microbial experimental wastes, such as specific sharp waste collection boxes, high-pressure disinfection cabinets with bacteria and so on.

Safe Material

In our experiment, we choose Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha, which is widely used in all kinds of laboratories around the world, as the vector of molecular cloning, and its safety and operation methods are strictly guaranteed. All kinds of biological components we use are also widely used in all kinds of biomolecule experiments, and their safety is guaranteed by published experiments.

Cell experiments use the most widely used Hela cell line, which, like Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha, has general and detailed standards for safety and operation.

Other kinds of reagents involved in the experiment also ensure safety, and can be completely guaranteed not to cause any harm to the experimenter when the experimenter wears gloves, coat and standard operation. even if there is careless exposure, the damage caused by personnel is very limited and even in the case of cleaning will not cause damage.

Among all kinds of materials we use, Hela cell line is difficult to survive outside the laboratory, while Escherichia coli DH5-Alpha and some experimental reagents have a certain ability to pollute the environment, so we have also done sufficient preventive measures in this respect, see the safe experimental environment and operation section for details.

In addition, we prohibit the use of any biomaterials that may cause environmental problems, animal and plant diseases, and ecosystem changes.

Safe Experiment Environment&Operation

Our laboratory will be regularly cleaned to ensure that the laboratory is clean, while the laboratory table will keep the laboratory equipment and reagents in an orderly manner. All toxic reagents are stored separately in the safe cabinet, all kinds of experimental instruments are strictly according to the size and function of the location.

Figure 2. The Experiment Bench of Our Laboratory.

All experiments involving toxic reagents will be carried out in a fume hood, while experiments designed for microorganisms will be carried out in a clean bench. Cell experiments were performed in a separate cell room.

Figure 3. The clean bench of Our Laboratory.

Figure 4. The fume hood of Our Laboratory.

During the experimental operation, the experimenters wore gloves and experimental clothes, and washed their hands strictly before and after the experiment. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the experimenters also wore masks throughout the process.

Safety Issues in Human Practices

We scrupulously abide by the various guidelines given by iGEM in the, human prctice section of human practice to avoid any human trials and any inhumane activities. Referring to Compilation of laws, regulations and rules related to biosafety of the people's republic of China, and consulting Professor Li Tianming of the School of Life Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University, we further detailed and refined our HP safety issues, such as the matters needing attention in communicating with biological companies, to promote and introduce to the public what we need to pay attention to in our project, and how to correctly and effectively promote iGEM to the public.

Please check our Human Practices interface for more information.