Experiment Safety

Safety

  • Summary

    Laboratory safety is an important part of the experiment. The laboratory rules can help people to protect themselves and finish the experiment more successfully and effectively. If we disobey the safety rules, it may cause a serious result. In this article, we separate four parts to introduce how our team operates and stays safe when we are doing the experiment, which are experimental protective gear, experimental material, experimental operation, and waste treatment.

  • Experimental Protective Measures
  • To ensure our safety in the laboratory, it’s necessary to wear rubber gloves, a lab coat, goggles, and a mask during experiments. There are some materials that need to be careful with, such as NaOH (irritant and corrosive), Khanna Vitamin(toxic), and methanal(toxic). So, we keep these reagents in a safe locker to ensure that not endanger our health. At the same time, girls have to tie their hair up with hair ropes to prevent polluting bacteria and chemicals in experiments and ensure it can't fall into a flame in the lab. Also, we should avoid eating or storing food and drink in the laboratory. It protects our food from pollution and ensures the environment in the laboratory is clean enough for experience. When we use some experimental instruments, we need tutors to guide us otherwise we might have dangers. If any accidents with equipment happen, we should report them to tutors and fix them as we can. Finally, all of the electric equipment should be turned off before leaving.

  • Experimental Material

    1.LB liquid medium

    Mix well before use to avoid precipitation and solid residue. It is necessary to culture at the right temperature and time to avoid overgrowth.

    2.TB medium

    Before use, check whether the ingredients are accurate to avoid accidental growth of microorganisms. Pay attention to controlling the culture temperature and time to ensure the stability of the experimental results.

    3.LB solid medium

    The preparation should be fully dissolved to avoid uneven distribution. During the culture process, attention should be paid to disinfection to avoid external bacterial contamination.

    4.Buffer AC

    Pay attention to the adjustment of pH value to ensure the accuracy of experimental conditions. Avoid contamination during preparation and can be filtered to remove particulates before use.

    5.Deproteinizing solution PL

    The storage should avoid high temperatures to avoid protein degradation. The transparency and purity should be checked before use to avoid impurities affecting the experimental results.

    6.Washing solution W

    Pay attention to the preservation of environmental hygiene, to avoid pollution. Be careful to avoid contact with skin and eyes when using.

    7.Eluent

    Select the appropriate eluent to ensure the high purity of the target substance. Pay attention to prevent leakage during operation to avoid interference with the experiment.

    8.Lysis Buffer

    Mix thoroughly before using to avoid the lysis of ingredients. Precautions should be taken to avoid contact between skin and mucous membranes.

    9.PMSF protein inhibitor

    Avoid high temperatures and direct sunlight when storing, keep sealed. Wear gloves when using to avoid inhalation or contact with skin.

    10.Kana antibiotics

    Store as required to avoid failure. Follow the recommended dosage when using to avoid drug resistance.

    11.NaOH

    Wear protective gloves and goggles to avoid contact with skin and eyes. Store in a dry, ventilated environment.

  • Experimental Operation
    • PCR machine:

      1. Wear a lab coat, gloves, and safety goggles, and use a UV-proof face shield when visualizing gels with a UV transilluminator.

    • High-speed centrifuge:

      1. Never overfill centrifuge tubes as leakage may occur when tubes are filled to capacity. The maximum capacity for centrifuge tubes is 3/4 full.

      2. Never exceed safe rotor speed.

      3. Stop the centrifuge immediately if an unusual condition (noise or vibration) begins.

    • Laminar flow

      1. The head and shoulders should not be inside the work zone and doing so might potentially contaminate the samples being worked on.

      2. Only sterile materials should be placed inside the clean work area. Make sure that all your items are disinfected properly to avoid possible contamination of the workbench.

    • Constant temperature shaker

      1. Turn off the power when preparing for work or accessing the test article.

      2. After using the constant temperature incubator, the inner and outer surfaces of the instrument must be cleaned and kept clean. It is forbidden to clean with acid chemical thinner, gasoline, or the like during cleaning.

    • Electrophoresis apparatus

      1. Switch off all power and unplug the leads before opening the gel chamber lid or reaching inside the gel chamber. Don’t rely on safety interlocks.

    • Biological Safety Cabinets

      1. Never work in a biological safety cabinet while the germicidal lamp is on. If possible, close the sash while the lamp is on.

  • Waste Treatment

    In order to protect the environment, we need to use special methods to treat the experimental waste, because most of the experimental waste is chemical and biological waste, and some of them are toxic, and some of them may be toxic when they interact with some substance. We set a special can for the experimental waste, and all the waste created during the experiment will be thrown into that can. The waste in the can will be sent to a special factory, and the way to treat it is different from the normal rubbish. Some of the waste can be recycled and we can use them again in the following experiments, such as PCR products. Recycling materials can help us reduce experimental waste and save the materials, but not all the materials can be recycled.

  • General biosafety management protocols for the cell room

    1. Students who need to do experiments in the cell room must go through biosafety training.

    2. Gloves must be worn for all experimental operations when entering the cell room; hands should be routinely washed after removing gloves. Gloves should be cleaned up in a timely manner.

    3. Please close the door when entering or leaving the cell room, including the door between the buffer room and the operation room, and do not open the outer and inner doors at the same time.

    4. Please clean up your own experimental wastes after the experiment, restore the common utensils used, and tidy up the common experimental table, so as not to bring trouble to the students who are going to experiment next, and also not to add burden to the duty student.

    5. Trypsin should be kept and used individually; serum should be put into the refrigerator at -80 degrees after being used up.

    6. Clean up the lab supplies in the cell room refrigerator once every three months.

    7. The frozen cells are stored in the liquid nitrogen tank in the cell room, and it is strictly prohibited to open the tank for a long time in order to avoid the liquid nitrogen evaporating too quickly.

    8. Freeze cells with special DMSO, divided into 1mL/tube, if there is a freeze cell operation need to get it from the administrator.

  • Cell culture incubator operating procedures

    1. The incubator should be changed with ultra-pure water once a week and cleaned once a month.

    2. It is strictly prohibited to speak into the incubator during the process of taking and placing cells to avoid the introduction of bacteria; the gloves should be sprayed with alcohol when taking and placing cells.

    3. Adjust the pressure of the CO2 cylinder to 0.06-0.08MPa, when adjusting the pressure, the incubator should be closed, except the person in charge of the instrument should not adjust the CO2 pressure and instrument parameters.