Team:Dundee Schools/Safety
Dundee Schools
Safety
Before we began working in the labs, we were given a safety induction by the lab manager. The induction covered topics such as the correct use of PPE (wearing lab coats & safety glasses at all times whilst in the lab and also wearing gloves when required), what to do in the event of an emergency (such as a fire), and the correct disposal of waste (what went in each of the different bins).
Whilst working in the labs we were to wash our hands when entering and leaving. When using the equipment, we had to ensure that we were following the correct procedure so that we didn’t damage the machine, as well as to minimise the risk to us and others in the vicinity.
For our project, in all experiments we are using laboratory strains of E. coli and Serratia marcescens, neither of which pose a substantial risk to a healthy individual. S. marcesens is a category 2 organism, so in respect to this all the appropriate health and safety procedures/precautions were followed.
None of our synthetic parts or BioBricks contain toxic genes or elements directly harmful to the environment. Additionally, we maintained containment of all genetically modified organisms and genetic elements to our lab by following all health and safety precautions relevant to the category 2 standard lab we were working in.
In terms of environmental safety, we thought of adding our bacteria to a water bottle that contains a filter. The filter would prevent our bacteria from being ingested by whomever drinks from the bottle, but it would allow our small RNA to pass through (meaning that only the sRNA would be ingested). The bottle would also have to be designed so that our bacteria could not accidentally be released into the environment (a possibility is to add a kill switch into our bacteria so that it would become harmless if released). In practical terms, transport of our bacteria would be carried out in dehydrated containers where the bacteria could be recovered upon addition of water with killswitches should they escape in to the environment. These containers would be easy to handle and dispose of, if and when necessary.
