Safety

laboratory safety

1. To enter the laboratory, you must wear a lab coat. This provides personal protection for your clothes and your skin and makes identifying accidental contamination easier as a white lab coat will make stains from materials easier to spot. Since this team is not working with particularly hazardous or contagious material, strict PPE is not required.

2. Nitrile rubber gloves must be worn before doing the experiment, which are mainly used to protect the hands of the user from potentially hazardous materials such as stronger acids, bases, and/or toxins. Though we did not work much with strongly hazardous material, some mild toxins were utilized during experiments, so gloves are strictly required. They also prevent contamination of the material. Since we work with microorganisms, bacteria and other microorganisms

3. Do not drink water and eat in the laboratory, as it may come in contact with some reagents in the laboratory. Eating and drinking water may contaminate water and food, causing potential accidents that threaten human safety.

4. Microwaves were used in the laboratory, as it is an electronic contraption that emits heat, caution is needed as certain parts of the microwave may still generate heat. Prevent direct contact with these parts.

5. Heat from oven, Heat-disinfection was used to clean used objects like pipette tips, aiming to eliminate all possible contaminants or remaining solutions from previous use with heat. This process is done at very high temperatures, direct contact with the oven or the heated objects is strictly forbidden.

General Laboratory Safety Rules ：

1. Lab coats should be worn by everyone entering the laboratory; nitrile rubber gloves should also be worn by the user before experiments.

2. Do not bring food and drinks into the laboratory.

3. Do not wear skirts and shorts in the laboratory.

4. Pour the waste liquid into designated waste deposit areas.

5. Tie up long hair before experiments.

6. Tidy up and clean the laboratory before leaving.

7. Wash hands before leaving.

8. Always be careful whilst handling heated materials; wear insulating gloves before holding hot glassware/equipment

Experiment and Equipment Safety Rules ：

1 ） Clean benches

A. Before usage, the UV sterilization lights should be turned on for 30 minutes.

B. Before putting hands inside of clean benches, rinse hands with ethanol spray to sterilize.

C. Light an alcohol light during work inside of clean benches.

D. When removing lids of containers, put the lids down facing up.

2) Gel electrophoresis

A. Abstain from coming into contact with electrophoresis gel, as it is slightly toxic.

3) Working with cooled enzymes

A. Abstain from holding the bottom of cooled enzyme containers, as it may cause denaturation of the enzyme inside.

Project safety

In the course of the experiment, we will use the bacteria BL-21 ， Nissle 1917 and DH5alpha. Both bacteria were not considered as a hazardous substance by the 2012 OSHA Hazard Communication Standard. ⁱ If it comes in contact with the eyes and or skin, then wash them with water or use soap for skin if necessary. Other solutions like the templates, namely pET-28a or PGex-4T-1 are generally not considered hazardous ^{1 ,2} . Therefore, our entire project aims to minimize any potential harm to the environment and humans.

Other notes

1. Although pipette tips were discarded after every use, they were still recycled and sterilized under 100 degrees Celsius to make them as clean as possible. After sterilization, the tips are able to be used again. Therefore there was no waste in the process.

2. While conducting experiments, there will inevitably be wastes produced that have to be discarded. To prevent unwanted pollution, biological or harmful wastes are separated from normal garbage.

Reference