Team:Wageningen UR/Safety/Nine

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Building a Synchronized Oscillatory System

Biosafety and biosecurity considerations

Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they?

Wageningen UR has its own biosafety rules that can be found on this page.

Did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project?

Next to the biosafety rules from Wageningen UR, techniques for working aseptically to perform Good Microbial Practices are generally learned in a Microbiology introductory course.

Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group?

Instead of having a Biosafety Board at Wageningen UR, all chair groups of the institution have their own Biosafety officer(s) (Biologische veiligheidsfunctionaris[sen] in Dutch). We have discussed our project with Hauke Smidt, the Biosafety officer for our project. The Biosafety Clearing House of the Netherlands handles licenses for genetic modifications, which have to be requested. Hauke Smidt was the Biosafety officer that looked to our project and has subscribed it to the Bacterial Genetics license. We could approach him if there would be any questions. The Law on Environmental Management notes especially the actions that should be taken in case the environment gets into contact with genetically modified organisms. These actions are stated generally. If this occasion would appear, we are responsible to do everything in our ability to solve the problem. This means we should inform the Biosafety officer, which then will inform the license holder, that again informs our Minister and environmental agencies for thoroughly sterilization. To provide directly available information to the Minister, furthermore, there’s a document with information about the micro-organism that is used and a safety assessment of the project.

Although our team did not choose to design constructs in order to help and to be present in the environment, we would like to notify that such a genetic modified organism might be approved under European legislation. The presence of a genetically modified organism in the environment can be allowed under several conditions. According to Eur-Lex Home states that an environmental impact assessment would have to be made and safety and emergency measures have to be documented well (2001). Eur-Lex Home moreover indicates that an accredited Dutch institution would have to approve the introduction (2001). Finally, Eur-Lex Home stresses that each case would have to be treated separately (2001). Thus, introducing a potentially beneficial BioBrick system or device that should be beneficial to the environment is not restricted by all means, but the application can be laboreous.

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-=== Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? ===
+=== Does your institution have its own biosafety rules and if so what are they? ===
-In the Netherlands, any person or institution intending to perform genetic modifications needs to have licenses of the Royal Order on Genetic Modified Organisms (which is called ‘Besluit GGO’ in Dutch), Regulation Genetic Modified Organisms (‘Regeling GGO’) and environmental legislation as the Law on Environmental Management (‘Wet Milieubeheer’). These laws are directed too by the Dutch governmental page on [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/biotechnologie/wetten-en-regels-biotechnologie Biotechnology laws]. Food related genetic modifications and border crossing transport of genetic modified (micro-)organisms are also regulated by European legislation. While neither one of these is valid for our project this will not be extracted further on this page, but more information could be found on the site of the European [http://bch.cbd.int/ Biosafety Clearing-House].
+Wageningen UR has its own biosafety rules that can be found on [[http://www.wageningenuniversity.nl/UK/informationfor/Current+students/Student+information/healthsafety/Laboratory+general/?wbc_purpose=basic#basic|this page]].
-The Royal Order on Genetic Modified Organisms is for the greater part about the classification of the organisms, in which consideration is taken about possible modifications of their genomes. Our team has applied this information by rejecting any project idea that requested a cell chassis of BSL 2 and higher from the list with brainstorm ideas we made.
+=== Did you receive any biosafety and/or lab training before beginning your project? ===
-According to the Regulation Genetic Modified Organisms Wageningen UR holds a number of (biological) safety workers. Every lab has a laboratory manager, or practical tutor. This person has introduced every team member to the lab by giving them a “safety tour.” Therein, we came across all the rules and information we should regard about: discarding biological and chemical waste, disinfection of the lab bench, what to wear in the lab, how to act in case of an emergency and more. The laboratory manager sees to it that genetic modification related research is being executed according to the involved rules. If an accident happens, like aerosol formation, the manager also is the first person who would be notified about this. Next to our project also, possible more risk full, lab work can be performed by others, so the practical tutor’s instruction, supervision and presence are welcome.
+Next to the biosafety rules from Wageningen UR, techniques for working aseptically to perform Good Microbial Practices are generally learned in a Microbiology introductory course.
+=== Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee or equivalent group? ===
+Instead of having a Biosafety Board at Wageningen UR, all chair groups of the institution have their own Biosafety officer(s) (Biologische veiligheidsfunctionaris[sen] in Dutch). We have discussed our project with Hauke Smidt, the Biosafety officer for our project. The [[http://bggo.rivm.nl/Paginas/bch.htm|Biosafety Clearing House of the Netherlands]] handles licenses for genetic modifications, which have to be requested. Hauke Smidt was the Biosafety officer that looked to our project and has subscribed it to the Bacterial Genetics license. We could approach him if there would be any questions.
+The Law on Environmental Management notes especially the actions that should be taken in case the environment gets into contact with genetically modified organisms. These actions are stated generally. If this occasion would appear, we are responsible to do everything in our ability to solve the problem. This means we should inform the Biosafety officer, which then will inform the license holder, that again informs our Minister and environmental agencies for thoroughly sterilization. To provide directly available information to the Minister, furthermore, there’s a document with information about the micro-organism that is used and a safety assessment of the project.
+Although our team did not choose to design constructs in order to help and to be present in the environment, we would like to notify that such a genetic modified organism might be approved under European legislation. The presence of a genetically modified organism in the environment can be allowed under several conditions. According to Eur-Lex Home states that an environmental impact assessment would have to be made and safety and emergency measures have to be documented well (2001). Eur-Lex Home moreover indicates that an accredited Dutch institution would have to approve the introduction (2001). Finally, Eur-Lex Home stresses that each case would have to be treated separately (2001). Thus, introducing a potentially beneficial BioBrick system or device that should be beneficial to the environment is not restricted by all means, but the application can be laboreous.
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