Team:BU Wellesley Software/Safety
From 2011.igem.org
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- | + | Specifically, despite the design of our parts and devices focus on ''M.tuberculosis'' transcription factors, the actual genes we are implementing in our BioBrick devices are genes from the nonpathogenic strain of ''M.tuberculosis'',''Mycobacterium smegmatis''. The genes are made from a PCR reaction using primers designed from the ''M. smegmatis'' genome. Additionally, we are inserting these genes into E. coli bacteria, thus we are never in contact or work directly with ''M. tuberculosis'' or ''M. smegmatis''. This eliminates any risk of our Biobrick devices to our team members as well as the overall public health and environment. The genes we are using are available to the public at http://www.tbdb.org/, thus there is no threat to security with our parts. | |
- | + | In terms of lab safety and institutional standards, there is an Insitutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) at Boston University (http://www.bu.edu/orccommittees/ibc/) which evaluates all research projects, primarily those involved with recombinant DNA, and insures proper biosafety guidelines. We are in contact with the IBC and are in the process of approving our project. | |
- | + | There is also a Laboratory Safety Committee (http://www.bu.edu/orccommittees/laboratory-safety/) through which all | |
+ | wet lab members have taken a mandatory laboratory safety training. This training provides a basic overview to chemical and biosafety, fire and life safety, emergency management, and waste management. In the United States, the major centers for biosafety procedures and guidelines are the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guidelines (http://oba.od.nih.gov/rdna/nih_guidelines_oba.html ) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/ ). | ||
The BU/Wellesley wet lab division will be documenting all of our safety procedures and guidelines in our online notebooks for future iGEM teams to see. Our hope is that future iGEM projects can continue to maintain, and even excel, biosafety standards to ensure the unintentional exposure or release of pathogens or toxins into the environment. | The BU/Wellesley wet lab division will be documenting all of our safety procedures and guidelines in our online notebooks for future iGEM teams to see. Our hope is that future iGEM projects can continue to maintain, and even excel, biosafety standards to ensure the unintentional exposure or release of pathogens or toxins into the environment. | ||
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Revision as of 20:12, 18 August 2011
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Safety
Safety is of the upmost importance to the Wet lab division of the BU/Wellesley iGEM team. In our research exploration of transcription factor interactions in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we strive to conduct experiments and construct DNA plasmids in the most biologically safe methods possible.
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