Team:TzuChiU Formosa/Safety

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1.　Do the biological materials used in your lab work pose any of the following risks? Please describe.

a.　Risks to the safety and health of team members or others working in the lab?
No, because the host that we have chosen to use (BL21) is categorized under risk factor one hence, not having much impact on human health.

b.　Risks to the safety and health of the general public, if released by design or by accident?
Due to academic research purposes, BL21 has been modified and the virulence gene has been removed. It requires artificial modification and an appropriate environment in order for it to grow. From a scientific point of view, if it were to be released into the public environment, there is no impact on the human health.

c.　Risks to the environment, if released by design or by accident?
Due to academic research purposes, BL21 has been modified and the virulence gene has been removed. It requires artificial modification and an appropriate environment in order for it to grow. From a scientific point of view, if it were to be released into the public environment, there is no impact on the human health.

d.　Risks to security through malicious misuse by individuals, groups, or countries?
We wont give out biobrick materials arbitrarily. If it is for the purpose of academic research, we will first clarify their aim and use if the material then decide whether to give it out or not.

If your project moved from a small-scale lab study to become widely used as a commercial/industrial product, what new risks might arise? (Consider the different categories of risks that are listed in parts a-d of the previous question.) Also, what risks might arise if the knowledge you generate or the methods you develop became widely available? (Note: This is meant to be a somewhat open-ended discussion question.)

From the perspective of our experimental design, our design project moved from a small-scale lab study to become widely used as a commercial/industrial product. Looking from our current situation, no new risks will arise. In our current experiment, we used the siRNA principle and designed a system that can silence the expression of antibiotic resistance. In other words enhancing its original biological mechanism. According to our understanding, since the bacteria we have chosen does not contain any virulence gene so when transferring our plasmid into the bacteria, there is no known major effects to humans or the environment so far. Overall speaking, estimating our experiment from this stage, the possible risks are relatively low.

Does your project include any design features to address safety risks? (For example: kill switches, auxotrophic chassis, etc.) Note that including such features is not mandatory to participate in iGEM, but many groups choose to include them.

Currently, our project does not contain the design for addressing safety risks. The reason is because we intend and hope that this biological system can be released into the environment (E.g. Hospitals). To reach our goal and avoiding any possible risks, we designed a biobrick that no risk should arise theoretically. However, nobody can guarantee that this biological system is forever safe as it is and that no mutations would occur therefore, after proving that our experiment feasible, we plan to undergo a more prudent test and evaluation. Currently speaking, our project causes no harm to most organisms and the environment.

What safety training have you received (or plan to receive in the future)? Provide a brief description, and a link to your institution’s safety training requirements, if available.

Before joining the laboratory, it is required to take a course called “ Laboratory rules and safety regulations” as well as pass the assessment. The main aim of this course is to educate us about safety regulations in a lab as well as how to apply lab instruments and machines. Institution’s safety training requirements link : http://www.eps.tcu.edu.tw/lows-all.html

Under what biosafety provisions will / do you work?

a.　Please provide a link to your institution biosafety guidelines.
Tzu-Chi University – Environmental protection and safety health center http://www.eps.tcu.edu.tw/lows-all.html

b.　Does your institution have an Institutional Biosafety Committee, or an equivalent group? If yes, have you
discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns they raised with your project, and any changes you made
to your project plan based on their review.
Tzu-Chi University – Environmental protection and safety health center http://www.eps.tcu.edu.tw/lows-all.html

c.　Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines? If so, please provide a link to these
regulations or guidelines if possible.
Department of Life Sciences, National Science Council 國家科學委員會-基因重組實驗守則 http://www.nsc.gov.tw/bio/ct.asp?xItem=6202&ctNode=1267

d.　According to the WHO Biosafety Manual, what is the BioSafety Level rating of your lab?
(Check the summary table on page 3, and the fuller description that starts on page 9.)
Basic-Biosafety Level 2

e.　What is the Risk Group of your chassis organism(s), as you stated in question 1? If it does not match the
BSL rating of your laboratory, please explain what additional safety measures you are taking.
According to the risk group table, our chassis organisms have matched the BSL of the laboratory.