Team:NCTU Formosa/safty

Safety And Security Questions

1. Would the materials used in your project and/or your final product pose:

1. Risks to the safety and health of team members or others in the lab?

No, we did our work under the control, and all team members follow the lab rules. Therefore, in fact, we did not get hurt during working.

2. Risks to the safety and health of the general public if released by design or accident?

No, our work also is harmless to the public and the environment. After we had finished our progress for a day or a step, we always dealt with the contaminated trash carefully, and the trash is disposed of after sterilization. It is the most important in our work.

3. Risks to environmental quality if released by design or accident?

No, We only worked with non-hazardous, non-infectious, commonly used and accepted bacteria strains. Even releasing by accident will not cause risk to environment. All work was conducted in a biosafety level S1 laboratory. Rules of best microbiological practices were applied.

4. Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups or states?

No, almost Biobricks we used are from MIT, and only something new we made and modified from previous Biobricks in 2010 iGEM works or clone by ourselves. Actually, these new and old Biobricks are very safe. Our progress is to build up a new control mechanism. These new mechanism is about temperature, and is safe. There is no method for others to use maliciously.


Please explain your responses (whether yes or no) to these questions.
Specifically, are any parts or devices in your project associated with (or known to cause):
- pathogenicity, infectivity, or toxicity?
- threats to environmental quality?
- security concerns?

2. If your response to any of the questions above is yes:

1. Explain how you addressed these issues in project design and while conducting laboratory work.
2. Describe and document safety, security, health and/or environmental issues as you submit your parts to the Registry.

3. Under what biosafety provisions will / do you operate?

1. Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they? Provide a link to them online if possible.

Yes, we have our own biosafety rules to follow. The link below is the documents about laboratory rules for all the university, including our igem-research-laboratory. National Chiao Tung University - Environmental Protection and Safety Center The rules in this website are strictly followed by our researchers, and administrators who are in charge of laboratory safety will come regularly and check if the rules are fully followed.

2. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns or changes that were made based on this review.

Yes, we have equivalent committee and well discussed our project with them.

In our university, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), the Environmental and Safety Center (ESC) is strictly responsible for Safety of all labs in the school. What we can do in our project should follow the rules they permit, and they manage all instruments and chemicals, especially for dangerous and toxic ones, in all labs. The ESC is to be informed on the basis of our project and on what we are doing and plan to do. Therefore, the ESC has permitted our project at first.

In addition, we do our wetlab activities in Common Instrument Rooms where are in charge of Biomedical Engineering Lab of Dr. Chih-Sheng Lin and Applied Microbiology & Biochemistry Lab of Dr. Ching-Ping Tseng. They would check whether the rules are followed or not everyday, and every time someone starts to work in these rooms, he or she should take down his or her student numbers in a log. Besides, when someone uses a common instrument, he or she should record the purpose for the instrument.

Briefly, under these requirements, the progress for our project would not raise any possible safety issues.

3. Will / did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project? If so, describe this training.

Yes, all the researchers included in the project are all well trained. They have all already received laboratory safety classes and practical trainings about safety instructions such as which toxic medicine should be aware, the instruments introduction and emergency response, etc.

4. Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? If so, provide a link to them online if possible.

Yes, we have our own biosafety rules to follow. The link below is the documents about laboratory rules for all the university, including our igem-research-laboratory. National Chiao Tung University - Environmental Protection and Safety Center The rules in this website are strictly followed by our researchers, and administrators who are in charge of laboratory safety will come regularly and check if the rules are fully followed.

5. Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? If yes, have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns or changes that were made based on this review.

Yes, we have biosafety regulations and guidelines to follow in our country. The link below is the website for biosafety regulations and guidelines of Centers for Disease Control, R.O.C.