Team:UChicago/Safety

Our team members conducted all their benchwork at the UChicago campus under biosafety level (BSL) 1 regulations. Before being allowed to work in our designated lab space, our iGEM team had to apply for approval of our IBC protocol and all team members were required to undergo a biosafety training conducted by the UChicago Biosafety officers.

Under BSL 1 regulations, we

(1) Washed our hands after handling microbes, removing gloves, and before exiting the lab.

(2) Were not allowed to eat, drink, smoke, handle contact lenses, apply cosmetics, or store food in the lab.

(3) Handled sharps safely and discarded broken glassware in appropriate sharps containers.

(4) Tried to minimize any creation of splashes or aerosols.

(5) Decontaminated surfaces once a day and after spillage of viable material.

(6) Decontaminated by bleaching or autoclaving all viable material, such as cultures and stocks, before disposal.

The organisms we used (E. coli Dh5-alpha, BL21-DE3, B. subtilis WB700, and BD366) fall under risk group 1 because they are well characterized microbes that don't pose serious health concerns for healthy individuals.

Serious precautions were taken when our team members worked with ethidium bromide. Everything that came in contact with EtBr was labeled, and team members were required to wear gloves and lab coats when handling anything that contained EtBr. Furthermore, team members wore protective glasses when using the UV light box, which additionally contained a shield.