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Specific Safety Concerns

We must constantly consider the safety implications of our project and how it could affect the environment, as we alter the genomes of organisms to produce novel functions. Understanding that our organism could create potentially harmful methanol and other hydrocarbons during methane remediation, it is envisioned that the bacteria will eventually be engineered with a kill-switch to prevent it's escape from industrial remediation of methane.

Laboratory Safety

Our project involves regular use of powerful UV lights to visualize DNA bands after gel electrophoresis. Antibiotics used in the lab to selectively grow bacteria may be toxic to humans in large doses, and a Bunsen burner may be used on the bench to maintain a sterile environment or to sterilize some metal equipment during procedures involving bacteria.

Chassis Organisms

Our team works with E. coli DH5α and BL21 on a daily basis as a tool to selectively grow plasmids and express recombinant proteins respectively. Both of these strains are Biosafety level 1 organisms and can be handled safely in our existing lab space, however precautions are still undertaken to limit user exposure and the release of bacteria and recombinant DNA in the lab.

Recombinant Coding DNA

Our recombinant DNA does not pose a threat to any humans, however it may cause environmental harm if genes for antibiotic resistance or increased gene expression escaped from the lab. Precautions are therefore undertaken to ensure that our recombinant DNA does not leave the lab space.

Our Lab

Our lab space is equipped with all of the essentials to genetically engineer our bacteria, centrifuges, thermo-cyclers, micropipettes (with a hand carved pipette rack), and a host of loving grad students. Although many other iGEM teams around the world have obtained an entire room for their work, we are quite cozy with our own lab bench and rented "think space"(note: insert hover picture of PBL room). Past Georgia Tech iGEM teams have done right by us and collected a large selection of hand-me-down lab tools (from pipettes to incubators) as well as having saved up the money to purchase a Qiacube to automatically perform almost any DNA, RNA, or Protein purification offered by Qiagen. Beyond this, our team also has access to many of the other tools shared by other labs in the building, including Gel-docs, cold rooms for slow growth of bacteria, flow cytometers, and much much more.

Safety Protocol