Team:Slovenia/Safety
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Department of synthetic biology and immunology of the National institute of Chemistry where we did the experimental work is classified as Biosafety level 1. All of the bacterial and mammalian cell lines we are working with (DH5alpha, TOP10, NiCo21(DE3)pLysS, HEK293, HEK293T, neuro-2A) belong to risk group 1, which means they do not cause disease in healthy adult humans and therefore pose minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel. The same goes for all the organisms from which our parts originate.
For handling the biological material different work areas with different safety requirements were used. Work with bacteria took place mostly in general, open bench lab. Standard safety precautions were followed: work area was cleaned with 70% ethanol before and after work, safety equipment, including long pants, close-toed shoes, lab coats and gloves, was worn at all times, all GMO waste was deactivated and properly discarded, the lab was physically separated from the rest of the building to prevent the spread of GMOs and those were carried around only in specified closed containers. Most of the work was completed in sterile conditions. In other work areas the same safety precautions were followed and additional ones if needed. All dangerous chemicals (TEMED, acrylamide, organic solvents, beta-mercaptoethanol…) were handled in chemical fume hoods. For work with ethidium bromide we had a designated gel electrophoresis lab with specific safety rules. The lab has separate ''clean'' and ''contaminated'' areas. No material that has been in the ''contaminated'' area is to be taken out of that lab. Stronger nitrile gloves are to be worn all the time and the lab has designated equipment that cannot be taken outside. Mammalian cells were handled in a designated cell lab with laminar flow hoods, where special equipment (including specific lab coats, hairnets and disposable shoe covers) is to be worn.
All members of our team who performed experiments have extensive wet lab experience and were trained and tested in lab safety, both general and GMO specific. General safety training was provided by the head of Work safety service of NIC (National Institute of Chemistry) and the person responsible for keeping and implementation of containment measures for our laboratory. Training in GMO safety was provided by the commissioner for biosecurity at NIC. Furthermore, each member of the team received one-on-one practical training before working in designated areas (such as proper safety precautions when working in the cell lab or in agarose gel electrophoresis lab).
The safety guidelines concerning GMOs in our lab are in accordance with European and Slovenian legislature.
