Health & Safety in iGEM

In iGEM, our main priority is the safety and wellbeing of us as a team and of those working around us, without a doubt being the most important aspect to our project. We ensured that our first step was the organising of a Lab Safety session with our ACBE Lab technicians to ensure we are aware of all the dangers around us, especially those linked in with our project.

Research

In terms of research and wet lab, Xiang compiled a vital Do and Do Not list 10 Steps to a safer lab session. The majority of chemical we were using did not pose a significant risk to us, the only real one was the use of ethidium bromide duiring whilst carrying out gel electropheresis, and one must be aware that it is a cancer inducing chemical. This meant special gloves had to be worn for extra protection.

Other obvious ones are the wearing of goggles and lab coats and that should pretty much keep you safe. But one vital point was never to leave a man alone in the lab, always have atleast a single person with you!

A more deep approach was adopted by attending a safety training run by the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London, in order to know "the code of practice".

An initial Hazard identification and assessment was carried as a first step, which included the identification of any compound-from ionised water, to buffers, to GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and the assessment of the risk they imposed upon human health.

The critically of Health & Safety, under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, was emphasised and bear in mind at all times, as this is "the alpha and the omega" meaning that any professional research should be carried under the legulations published by the relevant regulatory bodies. HSE, the Health and Safety Executive in UK, is the main regulatory body providing the relevant advice and support for any industrial business. In our case, we made a quite breadth and depth research into the policy surrounding the operation of a pharmaceutical industry with regards to:

Process Validation QC testing GMP, GLP and GCP compliance (DQ, IQ, OQ, PQ) Accident Prevention Policy Emergency plans Staff training Hazard identification and assessment Documentation Mechanical Integrity Waste Management

Public

Having done the research, it has become quite evident that our product poses no extra risk than any ordinary biopharmaceutical process to the public. If anything, not using IPTG and using such a genetic circuit will result in a much more efficient process in the expression of the protein. But nevertheless,

Environment

The main purpose at this stage is the proof of principle, to show that YES this is something that can be applied to so many other processes in different industries and different disciplines. That is the dream. And that's why ....

The lack of use of IPTG will mean .............