Difference between revisions of "Team:UiOslo Norway/Safety"
| Line 109: | Line 109: | ||
<div class="col-md-4 footerelement"> | <div class="col-md-4 footerelement"> | ||
<h2 class="boxheader footerheader">Contact</h2> | <h2 class="boxheader footerheader">Contact</h2> | ||
| − | <p class="boxnotes footercontact"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-map-marker"></span> | + | <p class="boxnotes footercontact"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-map-marker"></span>Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo</p> |
<p class="boxnotes footercontact"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-envelope"></span> uioslonorway@gmail.com</p> | <p class="boxnotes footercontact"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-envelope"></span> uioslonorway@gmail.com</p> | ||
Revision as of 21:17, 15 October 2016
Biosafety
The UiOslo iGEM team and the project are governed by the general regulations and safety procedure of the University of Oslo that apply to the institution as a whole. This is to ensure a good work environment and also the safety of the employees and other members of the institution.
As a researcher you have a responsibility that the research is performed according to the standards of good research practice and established scientific and ethical principles. UiO has a strong focus on research ethics and safety. Read more information of UiOs research ethics.
The safety guidelines and teaching in laboratory is specialized according to which department they belong to. UiOslo iGEM belongs to the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences, at the department of biosciences. Our lab is located in Kristine Bonnevies house, 3rd floor, roomnr: . Responsible for this lab is our supervisor Dirk Linke. This is a BSL2 lab and its specific regulations are listed.
The specific guidelines and local HSE procedures and tools that UiOslo iGEM complies with are available online and linked.
Biosafety Training
All students at the UiO receives HSE training specialized to the faculty they belong to, these are mandatory courses that starts up during the first weeks of the semester. This kind of training will ensure that all students and also other members of the working environment have the necessary training for their duties and responsibilities according to their desired work.
In addition to this the UiO iGEM team has been through a customized HSE review specialized to the lab we have our workspace in. This review includes risk assessment, appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and proper waste disposal. As already mentioned it is a BSL2 lab and internally in the UiO iGEM team we have worked out a few guidelines of our own.
First of all we will never work in the lab alone, minimum 2 or more from the team at all times. In addition to this a responsible from our supervisors research group will also be available and nearby at all times while we are in the lab. This means that it will always be experienced personnel in immediate distance if something were to happen. As some of the team members are not molecular biologists and have limited lab experience they are encouraged to join lab work with a student from the team that have molecular biology background and more lab experience. In this way we ensure that safety measures are maintained and that the team will never feel uncomfortable in the lab, and that expertise and help if necessary are available at all times.
Health risks and personal safety
Working in the lab, especially in a BSL 2 lab will come with specialized guidelines and regulations.. To minimize the risk that may come workin in such a lab, it is important to always be aware of the risks that are present or may occur during an experiment. The UiO iGEM team assess these risks and takes measures to minimize them. First of all when working with bacteria it is important to wear gloves and labcoat to minimize contamination. Before any experiment the appropriate SOP must be carefully read through. UiO has a library of common procedures that is performed at the Department of Biosciences; here we obtain the appropriate SOP.
If it does not exist in this library, a safety representative from the team will write an appropriate SOP and have it approved by the HSE manager. A SOP (procedures, risk assessment and waste disposal) will give you information of the risks that comes with the experiment and how to minimize these, what you should be aware of when performing the experiment and appropriate waste disposal of reagents used.
A list of some of the precautions the team have taken for regular procedures in the lab is listed here:
* When working with bacteria gloves and lab coat are used at all times.
* Agar plates with bacteria are completely sealed when set for storage, thus preventing their escape.
* Transfer of bacterial cultures to or from agar plates/petri dishes is performed in fume hood with appropriate ventilation minimizing the possibility of spread and contamination.
* Specialized risk waste is used when disposal of bacteria and equipment contaminated with bacteria.
* Always have 70% ethanol available for quick disinfection if spillage occurs.
Working with organisms in risk group 2
Working with organisms in risk group 2 demands higher safety and more attention to possible risks compared to organisms in risk group 1. Biological factors in this context is living or dead microorganisms, cell cultures, endoparasites and prions that has the possibility to evoke infections in humans. Read morea about the specified procedures and regulations for working with biological factors class 2 from our university.
These regulations are in Norwegian, and contain procedures on how to work with biological factors in a secure and healthy manner. Biological factors class 2 should are treated with caution, because they can provoke infections in humans. All work that includes biological factors class 2 should for this reason only take place in a biosafety 2 level lab, have an updated risk assessment, so that you at all times can recognize measures that will reduce the exposure to a minimum. Specific cleaning measures should also be taken with biological factors class 2. Workbench should be cleaned and disinfected before and after use. The bench should also be regularly disinfected with a suitable chemical or UV – light. This is to prevent transfer of potential infectious material or the spread of this into the environment.
Our work with organisms within risk group 2 was reduced to a minimum. Before starting up with the laboratory work the team has been in dialogue with the safety committee from iGEM HQ about the use of antibiotic resistance genes and bacteria. The team recognizes the risks that may come when working with antibiotic resistance genes and wanted to have the safety committees feedback on this. The team has also used the check-ins forms provided by iGEM HQ as a precaution even though antibiotic resistance genes do not require a check in. The isolates was obtained from National Expertise Service for detection of antibiotic resistance(K-res), located in Tromsø, Norway. This center has a high level of expertize when it comes to antibiotic resistance bacteria, and the team has had huge benefits of their knowledge. The isolates has been collected from all over Norway from different institutions. Some of these may be resistance to several types of antibiotics. The isolates was stored in the BLS 2 lab.
The team together with supervisors decided to synthesize (by IDT) some of the genes obtained from Tromsø and have them transformed into regular laboratory E. Coli to minimize the amount of work with these isolates. In that way we obtained beta lactamases from three different classes A, B and C without working directly with the isolates.
When the test was completely optimized using these genes we had the test tried out on some of the clinical isolates. This was done under close supervision of experienced lab personnel in our BLS 2 lab. All of the work was of course done in a high security biosafety cabinet using gloves and lab coat at all times. The team had immediate expertise nearby if anything were to happen. When working with these isolates we used disposable tubes that goes directly in the risk waste bin. When the work in biosafety cabinet was done, the UV - lamp was turned on to kill any bacteria inside. In this way the UiOslo team felt confident that the work was done in a safe environment and in a secure manner.
Contact
