Researcher Safety

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First of all, no radioactive elements will be manipulated during this project. To ensure safety of students during lab handling, only non radioactive cobalt will be used.

All E. coli strains we used have a biosafety level of 1, which means they are not known to cause diseases and have minimal environmental hazards. Although the final “Cobalt Buster” strain is designed to work in radioactive environments, it can be produced in normal conditions, like any other strain.

Cobalt is toxic by inhalation and contact and must be manipulated with gloves and masks and disposed in appropriate waste containers.
DNA manipulation will require the use of solvents and carcinogenic molecules which require the use of gloves and chemical hoods.

Thus, as for every bio-synthetic project, usual lab safety measures are enough to protect researchers efficiently during the “Cobalt Buster” project : wear a labcoat, gloves and dispose biological material in biohazard containers and metal in specific container. This strain is not more dangerous for people in the lab than any other E.coli strain, and thus doesn't require any additional care in handling them.