General Lab Safety

• Wear gloves and lab coats.

• Wear closed-toe shoes.

• No eating, drinking or running in lab.

• Tie up long hair.

• Dispose of biological waste in designated bins.

• Clean up the bench before leaving lab.

Experimental Safety

• Conduct E. coli work in a biosafety cabinet.

• Wipe down work surfaces with 75% ethanol 15-20 min prior to use to prevent contamination.

• UV irradiate biosafety cabinet for 15-20 min before experiments to sterilize the interior. Limit items inside to pipettes, ethanol spray bottles, ethanol wipes, inoculation loops, markers, etc. to allow thorough UV exposure.

• Turn on the cabinet fan for 10 min before use to clear any harmful gases like ozone.

• Disinfect hands and forearms with ethanol wipes before starting work. Any items entering the cabinet must be wiped down with ethanol first.

• Open bottle caps near flame and flame sterilize all bottle openings before use.

• Prevent cross-contamination by avoiding contact between non-disposable pipette parts and reagents when pipetting.

• When using Coomassie blue dye, conduct all procedures in a fume hood.

• Wear gloves during gel electrophoresis as gels are toxic.

Ethics

Our experiments do not involve any human or animal tissues, cells, or genes. All genetic modifications are confined to research use only.