Team:Waseda-Japan/Safety

From 2011.igem.org

Safety

We, the team of Waseda University paid close attention to the safety of our biological experience. To begin with, we must obey the agreement of “Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety” coming into effect in 2003 when we do genetic recombination. In Japan, to carry out this agreement, “Act on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity through Regulations on the Use of Living Modified Organisms” has been coming out since 2004. Researchers must understand these agreements.

In addition, , Twins which is our laboratory run by Tokyo Women's Medical University and WasedaUniversity have established the “The regulations of the safety management about experiments using gene recombination” and the detailed enforcement regulations.

Wemust compliance with these. When we do the recombinant DNA experiments, we must notify the recombinant DNA experiments safety Commission of Waseda University. The contents of the notification contain experiment plan, the necessary equipment, and so on. We are under obligation to submit a report on the progress of the experiment and results.

For our safety control, we’ll have to consider two points. One is how to prevent our engineered organism release to the environment. And the other is how to maintain the safety of researcher, public and environment. About the way to prevent the release of our engineered organism, our laboratory has a standard. And our project won’t produce any parts which encodes for a toxic protein, so on this point, we have only to obey the standard. Then, as regards security for surroundings and researchers, we certainly do things below: wearing white coat during experiments, preventing from infecting through mouth by eating and drinking prohibition, making experiments known to everyone by closing windows and doors, preserving and conveying genetically modified organisms, and treating chemical wastes properly.

The most effective safety management is the coordination of the team.For example, we can reduce our risk by advice each other what any danger is here, or by taking over experimentation properly.