Team:Nagahama safety

From 2014.igem.org

Latest revision as of 13:21, 16 October 2014

HOME PROJECT PARTS TEAM Policy & Practice SAFETY

Safety Folm

Your Training

a)Have your team members received any safety training yet?

Yes, we have already received safety training.

b) Please briefly describe the topics that you learned about (or will learn about) in your safety training.

Our country ratify the law concerning the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity through regulations on the use of living modified organisms. So we have learned the law of recombinant DNA experiment in Japan, the difference of experimental conditions required for various biological species, the method for sterilization of living modified organisms, and the rule for starting a new recombinant DNA experiment in our institute.

c) Please give a link to the laboratory safety training requirements of your institution (college, university, community lab, etc). Or, if you cannot give a link, briefly describe the requirements.

Sorry, our institute doesn't open the laboratory safety training requirements to the public. In our institute, reseachers and students who are planning to start a new recombinant DNA experiment, must receive a lecture about recombinant DNA experiment that are held by our genetic modification safety committee before starting the new recombinant DNA experiment.

Your Local Rules and Regulations

a) Who is responsible for biological safety at your institution? (You might have an Institutional Biosafety Committee, an Office of Environmental Health and Safety, a single Biosafety Officer, or some other arrangement.) Have you discussed your project with them? Describe any concerns they raised, and any changes you made in your project based on your discussion.

We have a genetic modification safety committee in our intitute, and our team primary instructor is a member of the committee. Our project have been discussed and permitted by the genetic modification safety committee. There was no concern and change during the discussion.

b) What are the biosafety guidelines of your institution? Please give a link to these guidelines, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.

Sorry, our institute doesn't open the biosafety guidelines to the public. Brieafly, reseachers and students who are planning to start a new recombinant DNA experiment, must receive a lecture about recombinant DNA experiment that are held by our genetic modification safety committee, and permission of new experiment before starting the new recombinant DNA experiment. In our institute, only P1, P1A, P1P and P2 experiments can be permitted.

c) In your country, what are the regulations that govern biosafety in research laboratories? Please give a link to these regulations, or briefly describe them if you cannot give a link.
Biosafety in Japan

http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/H15/H15HO097.html (Japanese version)

http://eiyaku.hounavi.jp/eigo/h15a09701.php (unofficial English version)

MEXT LifeScience Portalsite

http://www.lifescience.mext.go.jp/bioethics/index.html (Japanese version)

http://www.lifescience.mext.go.jp/english/index.html (English version)

The Organisms and Parts that You Use

File:Nagahama Safety2014 Spreadsheet.xls

Risks of Your Project Now

Please describe risks of working with the biological materials (cells, organisms, DNA, etc.) that you are using in your project. If you are taking any safety precautions (even basic ones, like rubber gloves), that is because your work has some risks, however small. Therefore, please discuss possible risks and what you have done (or might do) to minimize them, instead of simply saying that there are no risks at all.

a) Risks to the safety and health of team members, or other people working in the lab:

In our project, we does not use biological materials without E. coli and all DNA parts are already cloned in plasmid. We are only using DNA parts, such as synthesis of amino acid, that are not dangerous for human, so there are no safety and health risks.

b) Risks to the safety and health of the general public (if any biological materials escaped from your lab):

We only use E. coli JM109 and E. coli DH5alpha encoding extra DNA parts that are originated from E. coli and in Spring 2014 Distribution. These organisms are derived from E. coli K-12 strain that belong to Risk group 1. So we think that these organisms have no risks to the safety and health of the general public.

c) Risks to the environment (from waste disposal, or from materials escaping from your lab):

We are using only E. coli JM109 and E. coli DH5alpha. They belong to B1 level in biological safety in Japan, and can not live in nature. So if they escape from our lab, there is no risk to the environment.

d) Risks to security through malicious mis-use by individuals, groups, or countries:

All E. coli and DNA parts are stored in private refrigerators for our project, and the refrigerators have been locked when we do not use them.

e) What measures are you taking to reduce these risks? (For example: safe lab practices, choices of which organisms to use.)

As described above, we only use B1 level E. coli in our project and all biological materials are autoclaved before waste according to our institute rule.

Risks of Your Project in the Future

What would happen if all your dreams came true, and your project grew from a small lab study into a commercial/industrial/medical product that was used by many people? We invite you to speculate broadly and discuss possibilities, rather than providing definite answers. Even if the product is "safe", please discuss possible risks and how they could be addressed, rather than simply saying that there are no risks at all.

a) What new risks might arise from your project's growth? (Consider the categories of risk listed in parts a-d of the previous question: lab workers, the general public, the environment, and malicious mis-uses.) Also, what risks might arise if the knowledge you generate or the methods you develop became widely available?

We are planning to make two strains of transgenic E. coli.One has characteristics to release asparatic acid after addition of cadmium ion, resulting to collect other E. coli. The other one can trap cadmium ion outside the bacteria. When both transgenic E. coli will be used in natural field, the former might attract other bacteria and microorganisms to the cadmium-containing area, resulting to pollution of the organisms, and the latter has high concentration of cadmium ion outside the bacteria, resulting to bioaccumulation of cadmium in the predator of the transgenic E. coli.

b) Does your project currently include any design features to reduce risks? Or, if you did all the future work to make your project grow into a popular product, would you plan to design any new features to minimize risks? (For example: auxotrophic chassis, physical containment, etc.) Such features are not required for an iGEM project, but many teams choose to explore them.

In our project, we have used JM109 strain of E. coli, a derivative of K-12 strain encoding auxotrophy, which cannot grow in natural field. In case of future use, the transgenic E. coli will be used under supplication of required nutrition, so they cannot grow outside the experimental field. Also, if this two strain system for collection and attraction of cadmium ion will be used for other organisms, we must select the organisms not to be involved in bioaccumulation of cadmium.