Safety

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:
researcher safety,
public safety, or
environmental safety?

The iGEM 2011 Bard Annandale team takes the issue of safety to its heart. All of our team members have undergone general lab safety training, radiation lab safety training and laser lab safety training. We go through all the details and possible safety issue of our proposed procedure with our team advisers before carrying out any experiment. Our project only involves working with the engineering of non-pathogenic strain of E. Coli. All of our operations on E.Coli are carried out in a disinfected fume hood under the close supervision of our team advisors. All team members wear gloves washed with 70% ethanol solution during the entirety of the experiment. All our bacteria samples are stored in a designated fridge in the lab. All disposable wastes contaminated with E. Coli are stored in a biohazard waste bag and autoclaved before disposal. We believe have taken all the necessary precaution to prevent our project posing any hazard to our health, public safety and the environment.

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

All our BioBricks are parts involved with cell-signalling. The signal molecules these parts produce, acyl homoserine lactone and luciferin, pose no health or environmental hazard threat according to MSDS datasheet of the respective compounds. Our proposed design of microfluidic chip is able to trap bacteria tightly in the hydrogel within the device and does not pose any bio hazard threat.

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?

Our team strictly follows the Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant DNA molecules outlaid by National Institute of Health and biosafety guidelines proposed by American Biological Safety Association. We are also well informed of all relevant federal and New York State law regarding bio safety. Both of our team advisors and laboratory manager supervise our work closely to ensure all necessary safety protocol is followed.

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?

Experiment on our microfluidic chip device only involves a minuscule amount of bacteria trapped inside the microfluidic tube. This device is capable of generating a different visual response based on the direction of the flow, making it a very useful and versatile construct in designing microfluidic chips with E.Coli that are able to carry out logical operations.