Team:Nanjing-China/Safety
Overview
Biosafety is the prevention of large-scale loss of biological integrity, focusing both on ecology and human health. These prevention mechanisms include conduction of regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as strict guidelines to follow. Biosafety is used to protect us from harmful incidents. High security facilities are necessary when working with Synthetic Biology as there are possibilities of bioterrorism acts or release of harmful chemicals and or organisms into the environment. A complete understanding of experimental risks associated with synthetic biology is helping to enforce the knowledge and effectiveness of biosafety.
With the potential future creation of man-made unicellular organisms, some are beginning to consider the effect that these organisms will have on biomass already present. Scientists estimate that within the next few decades, organism design will be sophisticated enough to accomplish tasks such as creating biofuels and lowering the levels of harmful substances in the atmosphere. Scientist that favor the development of synthetic biology claim that the use of biosafety mechanisms such as suicide genes and nutrient dependencies will ensure the organisms cannot survive outside of the lab setting in which they were originally created. Organizations like the ETC Group argue that regulations should control the creation of organisms that could potentially harm existing life. They also argue that the development of these organisms will simply shift the consumption of petroleum to the utilization of biomass in order to create energy. These organisms can harm existing life by affecting the prey/predator food chain, reproduction between species, as well as competition against other species (species at risk, or act as an invasive species). Synthetic vaccines are now being produced in the lab. These have caused a lot of excitement in the pharmaceutical industry as they will be cheaper to produce, allow quicker production, as well as enhance the knowledge of virology and immunology.
Our Precautions
The organisms we are dealing with are E.coli BL21 and E. coli DH5α. Both of them are in Risk Group 1 and can cause no disease in healthy adults. E.coli is the most studied gram-negative bacterium and a model organism in synthetic biology.
However, the engineered bacteria may be released into the real world. Although E.coli is nontoxic and nonpathogenic, it is not appropriate to release them into the environment. So we have strict roles with these genetically modified organisms. Everyone should wash their hands before and after lab work. The waste produced in the lab are well-categorized and disposed so that the engineered bacteria won’t get into the environment.
As for the experiments, the experiments are mainly in the molecular level, so the risks are caused by the reagents we used. For example, we need to use EB for electrophoresis and cadmium ions for CdS precipitation. So we wear two layers of gloves when dealing with EB and strictly recycle the sewage containing Cd ions when dealing with it. After collecting and sterilizing, the bio- or chemical wastes will be recycled by professional chemical recycling staffs in our institute respectively.
Before our research, we have asked each member to receive safety training through certain curriculum provided by our department. All of us have successfully acquired skills in waste disposal, accident prevention, fire procedures and cleanliness. During our research, we carried out experiments within the biosafety guidelines established by WHO. Each member strictly adhered to experimental procedures with appropriate personal protective equipment, such as lab coats and lab gloves.
The following figures show some of the facilities in our laboratory.
Figure 1 (A) The autoclave in the lab. (B) The superclean bench in the lab. (C) Our instructor Peiqing Sun was doing experiments.
References
[1] Sewald N, Pühler A. Molecular systems biology[J]. Journal of Biotechnology, 2007, 129(2):171-172.
[2] James, Collins. Synthetic Biology: Bits and pieces come to life.[J]. Nature, 2012.
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CONTACT
Address
- Life Science Department
- #163 Xianlin Blvd, Qixia District
- Nanjing University
- Nanjing, Jiangsu Province
- P.R. of China
- Zip: 210046
- nanjing_china@163.com
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