Team:UNICAMP-EMSE Brazil/Safety

Safety Proposals

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:

• researcher safety,
• public safety, or
• environmental safety?

Any kind of research evolves risks, but in our project we tried to assure biosafety with the following actions:

1. All the students were trained by the advisors (PhD students with experience in molecular biology and microbiology).
2. Every lab practice should be performed with gloves, labcoat and other safety equipment if required.
3. We are using non-pathogenic lab strains of E. coli that do not confer any additional fitness advantages on bacteria, apart from the most common antibiotic resistance genes used as selection markers. We are focused on containment of this microorganism by discarding all the genetic or microbiological material after sterilization.
4. All the genes from pathogenic bacteria were synthesized to avoid safety problems with environment, public and researches health.

2. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes,

• did you document these issues in the Registry?
• how did you manage to handle the safety issue?
• How could other teams learn from your experience?

There's no directly evidence that the biobricks developed by our team should raise any safety issue, besides in the manipulation of GMO and lab practices. But if we encounter any reason for this kind of concern, we will report and document it.

3. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

• If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project?
• If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?

The wetlab work of team UNICAMP-EMSE was conducted at the [http://sysbiol.cbmeg.unicamp.br Systems Biology Laboratory], located at Center for Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG) in [http://www.unicamp.br/unicamp/en University of Campinas - UNICAMP]. Systems Biology Laboratory is a research laboratory fully equipped for dealing with Risk 1 microorganisms and GMOs. The following laboratory equipments are available: autoclave for sterilization; laminar flux hood with UV lamp for working with microorganisms under sterile conditions; shakers and incubators for microorganism growth; freezers and refrigerators exclusively used for maintaining culture media and bacterial cultures; specifically designated sharps collection bin; easily accessible instructions on how to deal with contamination events; and log book for recording spills and contamination events. The laboratory has doors with a biohazard sign and access to a specifically designated culture room is restricted to trained personnel. The culture room is provided with a sink and has a controlled environment, without opened windows; its tiled floor can be easily cleaned, and the bench tops are impervious to water and resistant to moderate heat and moderately corrosive organic solvents. Insect and rodent control programs are in effect at UNICAMP.

In Brazil we follow the guidelines instituted by CTNBio (National Technical Commission for Biosafety) and CBMEG is certified to work with GMOs (CQB 0086/98, http://www.ctnbio.gov.br/index.php/content/view/2267.html?id=09&op=2).

4. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?

One suggestion in the biosafety of the researcher is to include in the iGEM parts kit the bacterial less endotoxicchassi (developed by Berkeley UC 2007), to avoid serious septic problems in the case of an accident that leads to an intense contact with the bacteria (eye or bloodstream contact, inhalation or ingestion).

One suggestion for population and environment safety is to (somehow) include in all biobricks an operating unit that detects if the bacteria is not in a culture media (detects some molecule produced through the metabolism of a specific media constituent) and express lysozyme to kill it if it's released in the environment (idea inspired by Team UNICAMP-Brazil 2009).