1. Dressing Safety
In our science lab, we always wear covered shoes, long pants, and keep hair up so it can't fall into our experiment or a flame. We cautiously wear protective gear include a lab coat and safety goggles in the lab to make sure personal safety.
2. Operational Safety
Every student is aware of the operational procedures in laboratory. We are fully trained to use basic laboratory equipment and passed the safety assessment designed by supervisors. Besides, in order to keep safety, we were not allowed to use autoclave sterilizer and large capacity refrigerated centrifuge without teacher's supervision.
3. Laboratory Bio-Safety
Our modified bacteria do not produce any harmful substance that may cause damage to the environment, The lab we work is classified as biosafety level 1, which means that the microbes used pose little danger or even are harmless to human body. In particular, the microbes we use for this project are Escherichia coli (strain BL21 and DH), which pose no harm to individuals or environment.
4. Chemical Safety
When we configure protein electrophoresis gel, we need to use ACR BIS, a neurotoxin, which is dangerous when touched by mistake. But our group members have been well-trained with lab safety codes. We will cautiously avoid skin exposure to any contaminants, we all are wearing gloves and experimental clothing during the experiment. For wastewater preparation, we cautiously used weighing papers and molecular libra, so that no contamination would be done in weighing process. We put all the waste liquid into specific waste liquid tanks, and then send them to professional companies for treatment to strictly prevent the leakage of ACR BIS and other toxic substances.
5. Genetic Leak Prevention
The final product of our project is a cell-free platform without biology, which will not pose the threat of gene leakage to the environment. The containers and waste liquid containing E. coli in our project will be put into the sterilization pot for sterilization first, then put into the biochemical garbage can, and finally sent to professional enterprises for final biochemical treatment. Therefore, the E. coli we use in the laboratory will not leak into the environment. Our final product is a lens containing delphinidin, and the anthocyanins on it will be naturally degraded in the natural environment, so the final product of our project will not cause any biochemical hazard.
