Safety form
Safety Instructions
Before starting in the lab, it is mandatory to know all common safety and precaution rules. Therefore, each team member received a safety briefing, including safe handling of chemicals and organisms and their disposal, how to protect yourself during laboratory work as well as how to act in case of an emergency.
Furthermore, our team was instructed on the proper use of centrifuges, autoclaves, benches and all other technical devices needed for our laboratory work.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, further measures had to be taken to minimize the risk of infection. These measures include thoroughly hand washing when entering and leaving the laboratory, the attachment of additional disinfectant dispensers, regular disinfection of commonly used laboratory equipment and keeping a safety distance of 1.5 m. Since this distance was often difficult to maintain during laboratory work, all members were required to wear masks. Our weekly meetings were also held online during the entire time.
Safe laboratory work
When entering and working in the lab, adequate working clothes (lab coat, gloves, safety goggles, …) were obligatory. Every time an experiment was performed for the first time, an instructor was asked for the proper setup and execution. Every experiment with dangerous chemicals which could for example emit aerosols causing damage to the respiratory tract was performed under an exhaust hood.
Working with organisms
All lab work was performed in a S1 laboratory to allow the work with genetically modified organisms. We used Escherichia coli DH5α, E. coli BL21(DE3) and Pichia pastoris X-33, all of which are non-pathogenic strains. All work with these strains was performed under a clean bench and everything containing genetically manipulated organisms was collected separately and autoclaved before disposal.
Lac-Man is a biological water filter designed to be used and implemented in wastewater plants. Therefore it is mandatory to ensure that there is no damage caused to the environment by, for example, the release of genetically modified organisms into the environment. This is why we used recombinant expressed laccases, normally produced and secreted by naturally occurring fungi and bacteria, instead of whole organisms. Free enzymes in general are a lot more environmentally friendly as they are unstable and can easily be proteolytically cleaved.
