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| - | ==Safety==
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| - | Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of: research safety, public
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| - | safety, or environmental safety?
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| - | Do any of the new Biobricks that you made this year raise any safety issues? If so, did
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| - | you document these issues with the registry, how did you manage to handle the safety
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| - | issue, and how could other teams learn from your experience?
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| - | Is there a local biosafety group at your institution, and if so, what do they think of your
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| - | group project?
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| - | Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that would be useful for
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| - | future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices, and systems be made even safer
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| - | through biosafety engineering?
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| - | The well being of others is an important factor in all scientific work. Many
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| - | scientific advances of recent years have been pioneered in order to improve the lives of
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| - | those in the community, as well as across the world.
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| - | Our iGEM project involves working in a laboratory setting, and this poses several
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| - | potential risks to researchers. Being around dangerous chemicals require us as students
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| - | to take serious precautions against lapses in lab safety. Gloves and lab coats will be
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| - | worn at all times in order to prevent accidental chemical contact. Dangerous components
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| - | have been marked as such to deter misuse. Furthermore, we have received documents
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| - | explaining our lab safety protocols in detail, and copies will be kept both in the lab
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| - | alongside the copies we bring home. As for public or environmental safety, we feel our
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| - | project poses very little risk. We are using non-pathogenic E. Coli, which are unlikely to
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| - | transfer to other individuals, and testing on live subjects will not be pursued.
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| - | The Biobrick we plan to create this year should pose no safety risks to the public.
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| - | There are unknown factors involved in the destruction of bacterial cells; however, since
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| - | no in vivo testing will take place, any risks involved are nullified.
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| - | The Biology Health and Safety Committee at the University of St. Andrews is led
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| - | by Dr. Bernie Precious. We will be working in conjunction with Dr. Precious throughout
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| - | our project, alongside the standard laboratory safety rules as set by the committee.
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| - | Reducing risk both within and outside of the lab is key to the success of future
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| - | scientific advancement. With this in mind, we have recently removed ethidium bromide,
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| - | a carcinogenic substance used for the detection of DNA during gel electrophoresis, from our labs. Replacing potentially harmful substances with safer alternatives will increase
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| - | lab safety, and allow for a reduction in materials required to handle dangerous chemicals,
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| - | thus saving us money as well. Safety should be the utmost priority for students of the
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| - | sciences across the world. |
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