Team:Cooper Union/Safety

About Our Lab

1. 1. Does your country use a four-part "Safety Level" rating system for laboratories? (The system might be called in English "Risk Levels", "Bio-Safety Levels", "Containment Levels", "Bio-Security Levels", or some similar name.)
      
      Yes. Level 4 is used for the most dangerous organisms.
   2. What is the Safety Level of your lab? (Use the WHO numbering system, in which Level 4 is used for the most dangerous organisms.)
      
      Level 1 (low risk, ~= WHO BSL 1)
2. 1. What type of work environments do you use to handle biological materials? Please check all that apply.
      
      Open benches, Laminar flow hood / biosafety cabinet with open front
   2. Do you handle different materials in different work environments? If yes, please describe what materials you handle in what work environments.
      
      No
3. What personal protective equipment do you use in your lab? Please check all that apply
   
   Lab coats
   Gloves
   Safety glasses / goggles
   Full face shields
   Respirators: (particulate and chemical cartridge/gas mask)
   Other protective equipment: (thermal gloves, cryo gloves)
4. How do you dispose of biological waste? (For example: liquid cell cultures, agar plates, used pipette tips.)
   
   Liquid cultures and plastics are bleached. Biohazard disposal is taken care of via CitiWaste (here in NYC). Chemical hazard disposal is done by Leard Environmental.

Safety Form

1. Your Training
   
   1. Have your team members received any safety training yet?
      
      Yes, we have already received safety training.
   2. Please briefly describe the topics that you learned about (or will learn about) in your safety training.
      
      Students participating in this project received safety training (general/chemical/biological) either at Genspace or Cooper Union prior to beginning the project. The safety training consisted of a presentation covering the various aspects of safety found in molecular biology laboratories; i.e. proper microbiological techniques, safe disposal of recombinant organisms, etc. Upon completion of the presentation, students were shown the location of all safety equipment i.e. eye wash stations, first aid kits, fire extinguishers and safety exits. Students were also supervised by iGEM instructors at Cooper Union's Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering throughout the duration of the project.
   3. 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.
      
      https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2011/2/25/Interim_Safety_Rules.pdf
2. Your Local Rules and Regulations
   
   1. 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.
      
      Cooper Union does not have an Institutional Biosafety Committee, but the project has been reviewed by David Wootton, Ph.D., Director of The Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering and is being supervised by Oliver Medvedik, Ph.D., Asst. Director of The Maurice Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering. All campus wide safety is overseen by Dr. Alan Wolf, Campus-Wide Safety Officer for Cooper Union. No additional concerns or changes to our project were raised.
   2. 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.
      
      Cooper Union adheres to biosafety rules that are in accordance with established guidelines found in the publication "Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) 5th Edition".
      https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2011/2/29/BME_safety_plan.pdf
   3. 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.
      
      http://osp.od.nih.gov/office-biotechnology-activities/rdna/nih_guidelines_oba.html
3. The Organisms and Parts that You Use
4. Risks of Your Project Now
   
   1. Risks to the safety and health of team members, or other people working in the lab:
      
      The laboratory at the Engineering School at Cooper Union contracts a licensed chemical waste disposal service that is handled by a designated Hazardous Waste Disposal Coordinator/Chemistry Stockroom Technician, who is responsible for scheduling and overseeing the collection of wastes. The proper disposal of media containing E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the use of personal protective gear, such as nitrile gloves, safety goggles and laboratory coats, will greatly minimize the risks posed to team members.
   2. Risks to the safety and health of the general public (if any biological materials escaped from your lab):
      
      Since all materials will be disposed of using a hazardous waste disposal service, there will be no possibility of health risks. Our project utilizes non-pathogenic derivatives of E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, so in the event of accidental or otherwise release, the health risks are minimal. They are classified as non-pathogenic and can be safely used in a BSL1 facility.
   3. Risks to the environment (from waste disposal, or from materials escaping from your lab):
      
      The risks upon accidental environmental risk are minimal, as described previously, concerning the uses of strains of E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains we have been designing are intended to have a predetermined lifespan, minimizing risks.
   4. Risks to security through malicious mis-use by individuals, groups, or countries:
      
      Our BioBricks are not designed to confer any pathogenic attributes to E. coli or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, nor is there any data to suggest that they pose any detrimental effects on the environment. The strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that we are designing are actually for the purpose of safety.
   5. What measures are you taking to reduce these risks? (For example: safe lab practices, choices of which organisms to use.)
      
      We are following our laboratory safety guidelines (see above).
5. Risks of Your Project in the Future
   
   1. 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?
      
      At this time, we do not see any tangible risks or dangers our projects may pose to the general public. The methods we are using are relatively common and also pose no risks.
   2. 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 the programmable lifespan timer, we will knock out the mating gene of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains so that they will not be able to recombine or render the controlled lifespan useless.
6. Further Comments
   
   In the Programmable Lifespan Timer, we have been creating knockout cassettes for a number of genes that involve telomere length and telomerase regulation. For the De Novo Synthesizer, we have been proving the function of TdT and setting the protocols for specific synthesis of DNA in vitro. In our binary plasmid system we are using E. coli K-12 strains as the chassis organism, along with reporter genes that do not confer any known toxicity.