Team:Baskent Meds/Safety

Risks to the safety and health of the members or other working in the lab?

Although we use Legionella pneumophila genes, we work on microorganisms with biosafety risk leve1. In addition our experiments are performed inside a laminar flow cabinet to reduce the risk. We are always wearing lab coats, gloves and googles while working in the lab.

Risks to the safety and health of the general public, if released by design or by accident?

E.coli (risk level 1) are already present in our environment and also they have low pathogenicity, so bacteriae we experiment on would not cause additional risk if such an event occurs.

Risks to environment, if released by design or by accident?

E.coli (risk level 1) is already present in our environment as explained above. Our modifications to E.coli cells do not increase pathogenicity of cells. Because we do not transfer any genes encoding virulence factors or any proteins associated to pathogenicity of E.coli

Risks to security though macilious misuse by individuals, groups or countries?

Such a situation would not increase the risk level of the strains used.

if your project moved from a small-scale lab study to become widely used as a commercial/industrial product, what new risks might arise?

The knowledge we generate, is not expected to be harmfull for the environment or human health. Our methods are to detect Legionella pneumophilla, so we think our method won’t cause a risk for humans. On the other hand, our product in a plasmid vector, that is always possible to use it for different aims.

does your project include any design features to address safety risks?

We cloned L.pneumophila’s autoinducer gene to E.coli and producer L.pneumophila mimicking E.coli. so we aim to observe the response our processed QS wsith by using the transformed E.coli producing Legionella autoinducers instead of the actual L.pneumophila cells.

what safety have you received?

We received biosafety course during phase 1 of the Medical School. In addition, we also received biosafety training before the experiments. In this context we learned chemical and biological hazardous material and using these substances during experiments Unfortunately our institute does not have online biosafety guidelines. We use National Biosafety Guidelines.

Does your institution have an institutional Biosafety Committee, or an equivalent group?

We have our Başkent University Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee evaluating the scientific and ethical legal and social issues of any project sumitted. This study was approved by this Committee(DA13/06)

Does your country have national biosafety regulations or guidelines?

http://www.tbbdm.gov.tr/en/Home.aspx

according to the WHO Biosafety Manual, what is the BioSafety Level rating of your lab?

Level2. Our laboratory’s BSL rating is above the risks caused by biomaterials we use. Also we run our experiments inside a laminar flow cabinet.

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