At iGEM, safety and security are paramount to ensuring responsible research and innovation. It is our responsibility to safeguard ourselves, our colleagues, our communities, and the environment from potential harm by adhering to stringent safety protocols and procedures, conducting risk assessments, and fostering a culture of awareness and precaution.
This page outlines the key safety protocols and procedures followed by our team members throughout the project. Our approach to safety encompasses safe laboratory practices, safe organisms, safe materials, and considerations of the applications and potential misuse of our project.
For detailed information on our safety procedures, please refer to our safety form here.
Safe Lab Work
All laboratory experiments were conducted in a Biosafety Level 2 laboratory provided by our PI, Dr. Benjamin Bartelle, and iGEM team members only handled Risk Group 1 Biological Materials.
Before beginning, all wet lab team members were required to complete several training courses provided by ASU Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), the PI, and senior lab members. For the following sections, click on each button to learn more about the courses we took!
- Anesthetic Gas Safety
- Autoclave Training
- Biosafety and bloodborne pathogen training
- Community of Care
- Compressed gas
- Fire safety training
- Hazardous waste management
- Lab safety
- Machine shop safety
- Personal protective equipment
- Safety shower and eyewash stations
- Fire extinguishers and fire alarms
- Emergency exits
- Common abbreviations
- Biohazard and glass waste disposal
- Chemical, glass, and tool storage
- Incubators
- Soldering area
- Nanodrop and plate reader use
- At the start of the cycle, team members were immediately introduced to wet lab work through the Open Lab series hosted by the student organization DIYbio. Under the supervision of previous ASU iGEM team members, new members learned about plasmid design and were introduced to basic cloning techniques, such as PCR, gel electrophoresis, gel extraction, and Golden Gate assembly. Having the opportunity to practice under the guidance of experienced lab members allowed the team to work more efficiently and independently on OptoPACE during the summer.
Throughout the cycle, printed protocols were readily accessible next to our lab bench. Before performing experiments, team members ensured that either the PI or a senior lab member was present, and no one worked alone.
Safe Organisms
All organisms used in our project can be found on the White List. Specifically, the team used:
- E. coli (BL21, 10-beta, ER2738)
- Bacteriophages (M13)
All proteins used in our project can be found on the White List. Specifically, the team used:
- UirR/UirS
- CcaS/CcaR
- sfGFP
- AraC
- KanR
- CamR
All our genes were sourced from peer-reviewed journal articles, and our experimental materials were obtained from iGEM, IDT, and NEB.
Detailed protocols for our experimental procedures can be found here.
Safer Materials
For gel purification, the team opted to use SYBR Safe DNA Gel Stain instead of the more commonly used ethidium bromide. Ethidium bromide is a known carcinogen and poses significant health risks in humans. SYBR Safe offers a safer alternative by reducing exposure to the highly mutagenic ethidium bromide and eliminating the need for harmful UV light for visualization.
Safe Applications and Potential Misuse
Since OptoPACE was designed with the specific intent of making protein engineering more accessible, we prioritized reaching out to its potential end users to ensure the safety and security of our project.
- Dr. Takahashi, a PI from the University of Washington, advised us to design autoclavable parts. As a result, our final design allows us to autoclave all lagoon waste.
- Dr. Costello, a postdoc from Scripps Research Institute, recommended that we publish our final constructs on Addgene or a similar website to better track their use. Consequently, we published our FC1exp and FU1exp constructs on the iGEM registry page.
- Dr. Jang, a postdoc from Princeton University, suggested using parts from pre-existing literature. All of the constructs in our final design were derived from sequences found in research papers.
