Team:Bilkent-UNAMBG/Safety





Institutional Safety Regulations

As the Bilkent team we conduct our work in the laboratories provided to us by UNAM (National Nanotechnology Research Center) and all the members who work here are required to go through a biosafety training. The basic guidelines and the safety orientation can be found here. Laboratory Safety Committee (LSC) at UNAM develops and manages these environmental and laboratory safety programs to ensure a safe working place for all and minimize the environmental and health impact of the laboratory hazards.

Biosafety Level 1 Safety Criteria Applied

Our project is done at a BSL-1 setting and all the standard precautions are taken. You can learn more about the laboratory biosafety level criteria given by the CDC. Members are instructed how to use the containment equipment properly and they wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) –white coat and gloves- at all times.

The K-12 strain of E.coli is used in our experiments and this is a Risk Group 1 lab strain. K-12 can’t survive in the human digestive system and doesn’t produce toxins. Work with K-12 strain can be conducted in BSL-1 setting with the regular safety precautions. All cultures, stocks and other potentially hazardous materials are decontaminated with an effective disinfectant (such as bleach) and disposed of in their appropriate biohazard waste. Work surfaces and equipment are also decontaminated with disinfectant after the work is completed.

Because our project focuses on Volatile Organic Compounds and several of these VOCs are toxic, all work with them are conducted in a fume hood. Harmful VOCs are usually not acutely toxic and the concentrations worked with are generally low, however they can have compounding long-term health effects. As such our team was careful to be aware of the indoor air quality.

Don’t experiment with your health. Safety First!





         Adress:National Nanotechnology Research Center
                Bilkent University
                06800 Çankaya
                Ankara
                Turkey
         Phone:  +90 555 353 7220 
         Email:  unam-igem-2016@googlegroups.com