UChicago Genehackers understands the inherent risks associated with working in a lab facility and we aim to take all necessary precautions to minimize these risks. Our completed safety form can be found here. All organisms, parts, equipment, and reagents used by UChicago Genehackers can be found on the iGEM white list.
Safe Lab Work
Before completing any lab work, all wet-lab team members completed the following trainings:
- Biological Safety- Recombinant DNA at BSL1
- Comprehensive Biosafety Training
- Chemical Hygiene Plan
These trainings are standard EH&S courses required for any BSL1 lab work at UChicago. They cover topics including chemical waste disposal, lab safety, and how to safely manage recombinant DNA and recombinant organisms. UChicago Genehackers strictly adhered to the UChicago biological safety guidelines that can be found here and the chemical safety practices found here. Additionally, orientation to the lab space used by UChicago Genehackers was provided by the Ph.D. students working full time in the lab. Safety protocols and standard operating procedures for working with recombinant organisms were also reviewed bi-weekly at the meeting with Genehackers’ supervising PI.
Safe Project Design
While designing our project, we kept safety close in mind. One of the main reasons we chose to work with transaminases was due to their lack of any significant safety hazards. Additionally, when choosing the levothyroxine keto acid precursor we made sure to review the relevant safety data sheets for any potential substrates we considered using for the UV-vis assay. Additionally, as we were working with a vector carrying an antibiotic resistance marker, we took precautions with all recombinant DNA and cell cultures. We made sure to bleach and properly dispose of any cell cultures carrying recombinant DNA to combat the potential escape of antibiotic genes outside of the lab.
