Difference between revisions of "Team:Virginia/Safety"

Line 27: Line 27:
 
<div class="content">
 
<div class="content">
  
−
<p><span class="p"> In general biology, and especially synthetic biology, containment and safety are apex priorities. Our team followed strict safety guidelines and made responsible chassis selections. Beyond emulating previously asserted standards, we improved upon biosafety regulation by developing macro-scale, universal regulatory standards for biological containment devices. We also developed regulations for public lab spaces, which were previously unregulated. Charlottesville Open Bio Labs, a public lab organization, has adopted our safety protocols into their bylaws.
+
<p><span class="p"> In biology, and especially synthetic biology, safety and containment are of utmost importance to the researcher, the environment, and the general public. The 2016 Virginia iGEM team followed strict safety guidelines and made responsible chassis selections for our project. </span></p>
−
</span></p>
+
 
−
<p><span class="p">We chose XL1-Blue and JW E. coli strains as our chassis. These are risk group 1 organisms. Our submitted parts are the CBZ cleavage enzyme (Bba_K1879000), and our functional cleavage enzyme biobrick (Bba_K1879001). Our parts are not harmful to plants or animals.
+
<br><span class="stitle">Our lab</span>
 +
 
 +
<p><span class="p">Our experiments are conducted in a certified biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) lab. Every member of the team received proper BSL-2 training according to the University of Virginia Environmental Health and Safety department prior to the start of the project. The links to the completed BSL-2 training modules can be found <a href="http://ehs.virginia.edu/biosafety/bio.riskgroups.html#2">here.</a> 
 
</span></p>
 
</span></p>
 +
 +
<br><span class="stitle">Our chassis</span>
 
<p><span class="p">
 
<p><span class="p">
 
We used ethidium bromide, a known carcinogen, in our experiments. We followed standard protocols for safety with ethidium bromide; namely wearing gloves, isolating tools in contact with EtBr, and disposing of EtBr waste according to regulatory standards.
 
We used ethidium bromide, a known carcinogen, in our experiments. We followed standard protocols for safety with ethidium bromide; namely wearing gloves, isolating tools in contact with EtBr, and disposing of EtBr waste according to regulatory standards.

Revision as of 05:06, 17 October 2016

← Notebook References →

In biology, and especially synthetic biology, safety and containment are of utmost importance to the researcher, the environment, and the general public. The 2016 Virginia iGEM team followed strict safety guidelines and made responsible chassis selections for our project.


Our lab

Our experiments are conducted in a certified biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) lab. Every member of the team received proper BSL-2 training according to the University of Virginia Environmental Health and Safety department prior to the start of the project. The links to the completed BSL-2 training modules can be found here.


Our chassis

We used ethidium bromide, a known carcinogen, in our experiments. We followed standard protocols for safety with ethidium bromide; namely wearing gloves, isolating tools in contact with EtBr, and disposing of EtBr waste according to regulatory standards.

Our project is inherently safe in its design, as the purpose is to institute a new form of biological containment.

We faced no difficulties shipping our DNA parts to the registry.

Beyond following regulatory guidelines in our lab work, we crafted safety regulations for future biocontainment projects. During the course of our project, we consulted with biosafety experts, biocontainment specialists, and regulatory agencies to inform our regulatory guideline proposals.