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UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA-JOHN INNES CENTRE

BIOLOGICAL SAFETY

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RESEARCHER SAFETY

Our project requires precautions to ensure the safety of the researchers within the lab, as with any other scientific experiment. This involves the use of gloves and labcoats to protect from chemical spills, which are corrosive or irritant, such as luciferin. Also, ensuring the use of masks when using powdered media. The Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains (NEB 5-alpha Competent E. coli) (2.) and Agilent XL10-Gold Ultracompetent Cells (3.) used do not contain any disease causing genes and the moss Physcomitrella patens (P. patens) and algae used pose no threat to any of the team. Our research project also utilises Moss and Algae, however they are not pathogenic and do not pose any harm to researchers or the general public.

LAB SAFETY

The UK has national safety guidelines on biosafety (6.)

The University of East Anglia has a health and safety policy (1.)

The JIC operates under the standard biosafety rules of the UK (4.)

Both the JIC and UEA operate under the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974, which ensures that employers have a duty of care to the safety of their employees (5.)

>HEALTH AND SAFETY TRAINING

>BIOSAFETY GROUP

There is a biosafety group run by the JIC, known as the Biosafety International Network and Advisory Service (BINAS) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). This course is run by UDEC for past two years at the JIC and is now being expanded elsewhere around the globe.

>BIOBRICK PARTS AND SAFETY

No, our parts do not pose any risk to public or environmental safety.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Our project poses very little risk to public safety, as we are using a strain of non-pathogenic algae, known as chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The recombinant DNA we are creating emits light; it is difficult to see how this could ever engender pathogenicity even after horizontal gene transfer to other organisms. Regardless of this, our project must be properly contained. Control measures to ensure this include keeping the windows of the laboratory closed, autoclaving all waste and ensuring that the fume cupboard is clean and that no waste is left behind to ensure that the aerodynamics are sustained.

ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

We carefully designed our research project to minimise risk and to ensure that our research posed little risk to environmental safety. All organisms used in our project do not contain any pathogenic genes and they could not survive outside laboratory conditions. We are using lab strains of E. coli, which are unable to live outside the lab as they are out competed as they are optimized for lab conditions. The bacteria do not have any additional fitness advantage, except that they have antibiotic resistance. We have been trained to take appropriate measures to ensure that correct bio containment practices are carried out.

DEALING WITH SAFETY ISSUES THAT COULD BE USEFUL FOR FUTURE iGEM COMPETITIONS

In addition to meeting safety requirements outlined by the JIC, iGEM students should be required to take an online course provided by iGEM to standardize training for all participating students across the globe. The Event Tree Analysis and Fault Tree Analysis described on the iGEM safety page are both promising ways to assure that biological circuits remain safe even when one part fails. This concept could be made a reality if the Parts Registry devoted a special page on their site to catalog certain arrangements of parts that produce unintended consequences. If every team were able to submit their findings to such a page, it would be easy to see trends in the data and make hypotheses as to which parts should not be used in conjunction in the future. All the students working on the project have successfully completed the Chemical and Hazardous Waste Handling course given by the John Innes Centre, Environmental Health & Safety Office.

REFERENCES

1.University of East Anglia STATEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY: http://www.uea.ac.uk/uss/safetypolicy.

2.NEB 5-alpha Competent E. coli Information: http://www.neb.uk.com/productcatalogue/productinfotransfer.aspx?id=C2988.

3.Agilent XL10-Gold Ultracompetent Cells Information: http://www.genomics.agilent.com/files/PDF/CofALot%200006076080.pdf?ts=40785.3875403009

4. JIC Health and Safety: http://www.jic.ac.uk/corporate/about/policies/health-safety.htm

5. Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974: http://www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm

6. UK guidelines on bio safety http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/gmo/law.htm

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