Difference between revisions of "Team:OUC-China/Safety"

GENERAL SUPPORT

Harmless bacteria, E.coli.K12 is utilized as the main chassis for our prior design on the DNA sequence, stem loop. When further applied into the reconstruction of metabolic circuits, stem loop is harmless for the growth of bacteria and relatively safe for other applications. Being responsible for our earth and ourselves is our attitude in every experiments. What’s more, all the parts we have utilized are selected from Risk Group 1, none of which are with a Red Flag. All the chassis organisms will be sterilized by Autoclaves Sterilizers before being abandoned to prevent the genes from leaking..

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SAFE LAB WORK

We worked at a neat lab named 105, which is a BSL-2 laboratory. Before working in the lab, we are supposed to be trained by the skillful hands, not only for the general lab safety rules, but also for the standard experimental operation avoiding unnecessary demage.

No experiment carries no risks to the experimenters, hence we are properly equipped with facilities, such as gloves, googles, lab coats and so on to protect us from biotic and abiotic hazards.

Then for lab safety, we perform a routine inspection twice a day to ensure the normal operation of our lab and away from non-biological hazards, especially the water and electricity. Furthermore, several operational zones are divided scientifically for specially experiments like RNA extraction and qRT-PCR.

One case where we had to take extra safety precautions was when we gel extracted bands from electrophoresis gels. We wore UV protection goggles to protect our eyes from the UV light.

For us, lab safety is a hot topic and we have come up with a practical lab safety manual which normalizes our lovely lab.

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SAFE SHIPMENT

For submitting our parts to igem HQ, we first took the initiative to consult Chinese entry and exit inspection and quarantine laws and regulations about shipping DNA from China to the USA, which is forbidden without tedious red tape. Fortunately, Genscript cooperated with igem HQ forward our part sample to the USA. Ergo, we sealed dried DNA and sent it in the submission kit to Genscript, which clearly labelled as DNA without disguise. Our kit poses no risks and is perfectly safe for shipment.