Safety

Overview

Before beginning lab work all students working in the lab completed several levels of precautionary measures. All members working in the lab were aware of the potential harms associated with working with DNA isolation reagents, DNA ligase buffers, restriction enzymes, proteinase K and other chemicals. These potential risks were taken care of through our safety measures and they will be explained throughout the rest of this page.

Pre-Laboratory Safety Training

• All students who were to complete lab work were required to attend a Biosafety Training workshop led by Lillian Seitz the research lab safety training specialist for the Department of Environmental Health and Safety.
• Students also had to complete a quiz on microbiological practices, what to do in the event of an exposure, how to dispose of biohazard waste among other important topics.

In Lab Safety

• Our lab team ensured their safety in the BSL-2 lab at the University of Louisville by wearing all the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves, lab coats, long pants, and close toed shoes.
• During our time in the lab, we received input and assistance from the lab manager Sabine Waigel and Vennila Arumugam, a senior researcher also working in the Genomics Facility.
• Although we planned to use PFOA (100 ppm) and hydrogen peroxide, we were not able to use them in testing due to time constraints. Nevertheless, PFOA was still stored safely in a chemical containment cabinet.

Safety Policies

• While conducting our experiment we did not release or deploy genetically modified organisms outside of the lab environment. Our experiment stayed in the lab.
• We did not use any novel antibiotic resistances in our bacteria.
• We only used E. coli strain DH5-alpha purchased from ThermoFisher as the chassis for our gene parts.

Safety Examples

While working in the lab, we followed all safety protocols, and we have needed equipment ready.