Team:KoreaSonyeodul/Safety

SAFETY


What is your chassis organism?

E.Coli (DH5a)

What experiments do you conduct?

Experiments : Cloning, Chemical Transformation, Incubation, Protein Activity Test.<>/h2

What risks does your project pose at the laboratory stage? What actions are you taking to reduce those risks?

Everything we touched after the experiment can be potential risk. We should remember to wear gloves always and to trash the used materials.

How would your project be used in the real world?

In a factory
In the natural environment

What risks might your project pose, if it were fully developed into a real product that real people could use? What future work might you do to reduce those risks?

We need to further consider environmental impact that these mealworms could have if they are exposed to the natural environment.






Risk Groups and Safety Levels

What is the Safety Level of your lab?

Risk Group 1

Which work areas do you use to handle biological materials?

Bench and clean bench in the laboratory

Please briefly describe the topics that you learned about (or will learn about) in your safety training.

We learned about personal protective equipment, general laboratory safety regulation, safety regulations for harmful biological and chemical substances, and Electrical safety regulations. Especially for a new research worker, following list of behavior was emphasized.

For New Research Workers:
1. Follow the instructions of your professors and experienced research workers and quickly learn how to conduct an experiment safely.
2. Strive to understand the situation in the laboratory as quickly as possible.
3. Learn how to use the machinery, equipment, and laboratory apparatus that you are in charge of.
4. Dress neatly and wear protective equipment in an appropriate manner.
5. Do not hesitate to ask questions.
6. People become remiss when they get used to running an experiment. This is the most dangerous moment to look out for.

Who is responsible for the safety of biology labs at your institution? What are the guidelines for laboratory biosafety? Please give a link to these guidelines, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

In Korea University, Kwon, Oh-Suk is responsible for the safety of biology labs.
(+82-02-3290-2764, email : rmfo_rmfody@korea.ac.kr)

We follow the bio-safety guidelines for any procedure in the laboratory. Please refer to our safety guideline (includes what biosafety rules we have to consider in our country): http://kusafe.korea.ac.kr/main.asp (university guideline, Korean) http://bric.postech.ac.kr/myboard/read.php…(national guideline, Korean)

In your country / region, what are the laws and regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories? Please give a link to these regulations, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

Consideration about biosafety rules or guidelines
Based on our university guideline and national guideline, we made 3 major biosafety principles and their detailed guideline.

1. Biosafety level of laboratory
This principle defines boundary of experiment which labs can conducted and limits the type of experiments based on their capability. Each lab should be evaluated for their biosafety capability and assigned any level of biosafety to conduct an experiment. Based on their capability and assigned biosafety level, types of experiments that they can do should be limited. For example, a lab assigned to lowest biosafety level cannot handle pathogenic bacteria.

2. Assessment and evaluation of project and pathogenicity of bacteria
This principle assess and evaluate biosafety of project and pathogenicity of bacteria. When assessing a project, one should evaluate potential threat for researcher, public, and ecosystem. Like medicinal project undergoing IRB examination before the experiment, biological experiment should go though series of assessment and evaluation. Biosafety committees and scientists should communicate each other and give them thorough feedback.

3. Bio-security
This principle covers securing biological organism from lost, theft, and misuse. It also deals with regulation after lost, theft, and misuse is happened. To achieve this, bio-security system should be established.