Team:Kyoto/Safety

Safety

There are 4 questions in Safety.

1. Safety of Project

Q. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of researcher safety, public safety, or environmental safety?

• Public safety

To ensure the safety of both the public and researchers, we consulted our advisors when planning out our project. In the process, we abandoned many of our ideas due to the concern that they may raise safety issues:

For example, we first thought of using poisonous chemical compounds such as arsenic with the purpose of dealing with environmental pollution, 

but in the end, we reached the conclusion that it is too risky.

• Environmental safety:　　

Since one of the purposes of our project is to prevent the unregulated spread of genetically modified organisms, especially bacteria, the closest attention was paid when handling and disposing bacterial cultures or any of its by-products. We made sure all the biohazardous waste and labware had been autoclaved before disposal.

• Researchers safety:

We think that good education on safety guidelines and requirements is the primary, yet important and effective way to enable researchers to protect themselves. As our first activity this year, we first provided all of our new members with basic knowledge and understanding of biotechnology, and then had them trained for their assigned experiments. Being frequently visited and gone over by senior students and advisors, all of us, including freshmen and sophomores, could carry out all the experiments safely.

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2. Safety of Parts

Q. Do any of the new BioBrick parts (or devices) that you made this year raise any safety issues? If yes, did you document these issues in the Registry? How did you manage to handle the safety issue? How could other teams learn from your experience?

A. None of the 18 parts we submitted raise any safety issues. However, organisms applied with Lysis cassete to emit chemical substances by cell lysis have to be managed carefully. Such organisms are always modified so that they produce as much chemical substances as possible. In order to reduce the safety risk, we should take strict measures according to the governmental safety guidance.

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3. Safety Rules

Q. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution? If yes, what does your local biosafety group think about your project? If no, which specific biosafety rules or guidelines do you have to consider in your country?

A. Yes: Laboratory of Science Communication and Bioethics, which belongs to the Kyoto University Graduate School of Bioscience, is in charge of making all the biological researches carried out in our institution transparent to the public. For detailed information on their activities, please visit the following websites: [http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~kato/], [http://www.lif.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/modules/education/content0017.html]

We held meetings at least once in every two weeks with our advisors, all of them familiar with the safety guidelines set by the group, and confirmed our abidance by the rules. When we faced problems and had to change the approved protocols in between the meetings, we promptly got in touch with the advisors and got their advice before taking the next action. Since they often have conversations with the biosafety group and assure the appropriateness of our approach, we can say our activities are recognized and approved by the group.

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4. Other Ideas

Q. Do you have any other ideas how to deal with safety issues that could be useful for future iGEM competitions? How could parts, devices and systems be made even safer through biosafety engineering?

A. We have one simple proposal: To set official iGEM standards for biosafety.

The number of iGEM participants is increasing every year, and so is the number of societies involved in the iGEM activities. Different societies have different rules(, though it might not be ideal when it comes to safety). Therefore, it may be reasonable to set standards to ensure every participating team meets a certain level of biosafety.

We suggest the following.

• The standards are made through discussion among some researchers and experts in biosafety.
• The standards are showed by a run of the item.
• iGEM teams must keep the rules in this standards.
• iGEM HQ visit some teams at random and without an appointment, and make sure that they keep the standars.

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