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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 [http://www.wageningenuniversity.nl/UK/informationfor/Current+students/Student+information/healthsafety/Laboratory+general/?wbc_purpose=basic#basic 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. A lab manager, also called a practical tutor, has introduced every team member to the lab by giving them a “safety tour.” Therein, we came across a lot of, rather general, rules we should regard at working in the laboratory. The rules dealt with: the discardment biological and chemical waste, the disinfection of the lab bench, the clothing to wear inside the lab, your way of acting during an emergency and more.
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. The Biosafety officer has subscribed our project to the Bacterial Genetics license. We could approach him if there would be any questions.
