<!DOCTYPE html> Columbia University iGEM

Safety

Since we were working with Aedes Aegypti, a mosquito strain able to carry Zika as well as a number of other mosquito borne illnesses, we strove for our facilities and practices to conform to Arthropod Containment Level 1(ARL-1) and Arthropod Containment Level 2(ARL-2) guidelines. The aim of these guidelines is to prevent any mosquitos from escaping the laberatory and biting humans, becasue if a human they bit had Zika, that mosquito could then transmit Zika to others. To achieve this end, we took precautions while working with and disposing of larval/pupal mosquitoes and adult mosquitos. For larval/pupal mosquitoes (the stages in the mosquito life cycle that they needed to be in water to survive), we made sure to freeze all discard pupae and wastewater before pouring down the sink to ensure no eggs would survive and hatch in the Hudson river. If a container of waste was too big to fit in the freezer, we would fill it with 10% bleach overnight. All wastewater spills were also wiped with bleach. Furthermore, when sorting out pupae from larvae, we pulled out all pupae for each time sorting to ensure no metamorphosed adult mosquitos would emerge when we next opened the larvae container. A different set of safety protocol was used to house adult mosquitos. Adults were kept in “Bug-dorms” within in an incubator, so escape when we were not around or resulting tripping/knocking over a cage was unlikely. Any sorting of adults was done in a 4-6 degree cold room, which immobilized the mosquitos and prevented them from flying. If the mosquitoes had to be access outside the cold room, we would use a safe opening technique and hold a flap around our hand closed. If any mosquito escaped, we would track it down and kill it. When transporting a container of adult mosquitos, we strove to keep the mosquito container in one other layer of plastic in case of a container breach. To dispose of adults, we left cages in the cold room for at least a week.

Team:ColumbiaU NYC/Safety

Safety