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Team:Warsaw/Safety
From 2011.igem.org
Safety
Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety
During our project we mainly use our cell-free cloning procedure. It requires only work with DNA. No GMO organisms are produced. GMO organisms are produced at final stage - when the final constructs are transformed to the cells.
We work only with E. coli non-pathogenic strain. Except Ampicilin and Chloramphenicol resistance genes there are no potentially dangerous biobricks in our constructs.
Work in a microbiology lab environment:
In the lab there is work with GMO and E. coli bacteria strains. Researchers have to wear lab coats and gloves. Work with toxic chemical compounds:
Ethidium Bromide can cause cancer - is used only to visualize gels It is not added to agarose gels before running the gel.
Antibiotics: Chloramphenicol and Ampicillin:
While making antibiotics solutions from the powder the mask and safety glasses have to be worn.
Work in the RNAse free environment:
Hazards include RNAse cleaners like RNA zap, a mask should be worn. The cleaners are irritating.
Work with UV light:
UV light is a cause of cancer therefore a UV protective mask, gloves and lab coats have to be worn while working with the UV light.
public safety, or environmental safety?
The biobrick that we create are not dangerous to the environment. However the spread of the Chloramphenicol resistance gene present in biobrick vector would generate Chloramphenicol resistance bacteria and increasing pool of the antibiothic resistance genes in the environment.
Therefore the microbiological wastes should be properly disposed - as adviced by the university
to ensure that no GMO organisms or toxic compounds gets to the environment.
Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues?
No, currently our planned BioBricks are completely biosafe.
We use only constructs expressing fluorescent proteins.
The new brick includes modified RBS parts.
To our best knowledge those bricks are safe to use in the lab.In case of release to the environment those biobrick are not toxic or do not cause pathogenicity or are not a source of evolutionary advantage.
Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?
In Poland there are no biosafety groups locally at the universities.
We are following Biosafety guidelines of Polish Ministry of Environment.
Our department also obtained the necessary permission to work with GMO organisms. Therefore it is fully legal to engineer E. coli according to Polish law. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?
We designed a protocol to perform cloning without use of living organisms.
This protocol allows cloning biobricks without the need to produce GMO organisms.
Therefore according to Polish law and biosafety rules it allows even high schools to take part in iGEM.
The Genetically Modified Organism is created only at the final stage - to test the device.
It can be performed at a GMO certified institution.
