1. Overview#
The laboratory is an important base for talent cultivation and scientific research work. In order to create a civilized, hygienic, and safe experimental environment and ensure the normal conduct of teaching and scientific research experiments, laboratory safety is of paramount importance.
The iGEM 2024 safety form helps us to think about how to conduct experiments safely, how to strengthen daily inspections and safety education and training, how to standardize experimental operation and management, and how to effectively eliminate potential safety hazards. And before the start of the experiment,our team conducted detailed and comprehensive laboratory safety training, which included experimental operation specifications, precautions for instrument use, precautions for reagent use, experimental waste disposal, and so on. In addition, strict adherence to laboratory regulations allows us to conduct our experiments smoothly. Below is a list of what our team has done in terms of laboratory safety.
2. Safety Training#
In the school’s biology conference room, Ms. Xu is emphasizing the importance of laboratory safety to us: “Lab safety is crucial in any clinical environment because having the right equipment, rules, guidelines, and practices in place is essential for maintaining the overall quality, accuracy, and integrity of research. This applies not only to professional medical facilities but also to our teaching labs. we learned the correct use of various instruments and the correct disposal of various types of waste in the lab, which not only ensured our personal safety during the experiments, but also ensured the rigor and reproducibility of our experiments.
By ensuring that every student understands and follows these safety regulations, we can provide them with a learning environment that is both safe and productive.”
We also invited Xiaoyu ZHANG, Team Leader of NANJING-NFLSFC in iGEM 2023 to give us a lecture on the precautions to be taken when conducting experiments and to share with the laboratory safety issues they encountered and the solutions they implemented. we learned the correct use of various instruments and the correct disposal of various types of waste in the lab, which not only ensured our personal safety during the experiments, but also ensured the rigor and reproducibility of our experiments.
Regulations#
Below are the rules and regulations for the laboratories where our team works.
1. Precautionary measures
The laboratory shall prominently display safety information boards, including warning signs of safety risk points, safety responsible persons, hazard categories involved, protective measures and effective emergency contact numbers, etc., and update them in a timely manner, while ensuring that all experimenters understand the relevant information.
Building upon the general safety training provided by schools and colleges to relevant experimenters, the research group should enhance targeted safety training to ensure that each student is aware of the experimental safety risks, preventive measures, and emergency plans associated with their own and their classmates’ work. Strictly abide by the safety access system for scientific research projects and the student safety access system, and prevent scientific research projects and students that fail to pass the assessment from entering the laboratory; Do a good job in organizing laboratory safety duties, conduct daily safety inspections, discover and rectify potential safety hazards in a timely manner, and continuously improve laboratory safety work;
Maintaining a clean and orderly laboratory environment is crucial, and it is strictly prohibited to store any items not related to the experiments. Post signs such as “no eating” and “no smoking” in a conspicuous position in the laboratory and strictly implement them; In the event of a potentially hazardous material spill and at the end of each day, the work surface and laboratory equipment must be decontaminated.
Equip necessary safety equipment or facilities including fire extinguishers, fire blankets, first-aid kits, lab coats, masks, gloves, etc., and regularly inspect, maintain, and update them. The fire hydrant box and power distribution cabinet are not blocked by debris.
2. Laboratory garbage disposal
Biological contaminated wastes such as pipette tips, petri dishes, and centrifuge tubes are placed in yellow garbage bags in yellow garbage cans as medical waste; Sharps including blades, needles and other sharps are stored in the sharps box, and after the collection is completed, the sharps box is closed, and the waste label is posted and placed in the yellow medical waste bag; Waste liquids such as culture broth are stored in special inorganic waste tanks; Animal tissues or carcasses are frozen in a special freezer; After disinfection and treatment, medical waste will be handed over to a qualified environmental protection company for disposal.
Working in a Level2 Physical Protection Laboratory#
Each member of our team receives lab training to understand the safety regulations required to work in the PC2 lab. Upon entering the lab, all team members were mentored by our lab supervisor, Dr. Li, for three weeks to ensure safe operation and familiarization with the lab. During subsequent lab operations, we ensured our personal safety through protective gear, sterilization of ourselves and our space, proper waste disposal and sealing of biological components. We learned that our PC2 lab is at Bio-safety Level 2 and requires moderate controls. The nature of our program requires the generation of many genetically engineered organisms and we are careful to handle them properly.
1) Use of Organisms and Reagents
We used BL21 DE3 E. coli throughout this project. Before using any bacteria, we carefully researched their potential risks to understand the necessary level of caution. The bacteria we constructed were not dangerous inside or outside of our project. Even so, we took great care in handling any biological products, using bleach to kill any bacterial waste and treating contaminated materials as autoclaved.
We use several hazardous reagents in our projects. We took extra precautions to keep ourselves safe by carrying out an initial risk assessment and wearing extra safety equipment for handling.
To test the activity of metal-binding proteins, we used an aqueous solution of inorganic cadmium (0.05 mol/mL). We use this highly toxic substance only after a thorough risk assessment. In the laboratory, our safety measures include the use of specialized chemical storage cabinets with cytotoxic fume hoods dedicated to the handling of cadmium. We also use rugged nitrile gloves and safety goggles over standard personal protective equipment to prevent harmful chemical exposure.
2) The following is the Code of the State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics at Southeast University
1. Laboratory Safety and Management
1.1 General Principles
1 The laboratory should be kept serious, quiet, neat and clean, smoking is prohibited, and the introduction of people and objects unrelated to the experiment is not allowed.
2 When doing experiments must be dressed in overalls, experiments should be conscientious and responsible, to comply with the operating procedures, experiments in the middle of the workplace may not leave without authorization.
3 Pre-use of unfamiliar items should be preceded by an understanding of their properties, which can be obtained through the Material Safety Date Sheets (http://www.msds.com/). Whenever flammable and explosive substances are used or toxic, hazardous and infectious substances are tested, they should be agreed by the relevant management personnel of the laboratory and recorded, and all laboratory personnel should be informed at the same time. It should also be operated in the designated location as indicated, and appropriate reprocessing should be carried out after the experiment is completed.
4 Precision and valuable instruments should be kept and used by specialized personnel, and the registration procedures for their use should be strictly implemented; damage to or malfunctioning of instruments should be reported immediately to the relevant personnel so that they can be dealt with as appropriate.
5 Laboratory use is completed, must be cleared in a timely manner; experiments after the instrument should be cleaned up in a timely manner, reagents should be returned to the original place in a timely manner, to maintain the tidiness of the laboratory.
6 The access card used in this laboratory is for personal use only. Loss of the card must be reported promptly and a new card must be issued.
1.2 Laboratory Routines
1 All personnel engaged in laboratory operations must be trained and qualified by the staff of the room before entering the laboratory for duty. New faculty and students should enter the laboratory to carry out experimental work under the guidance and training of other faculty and students in the room.
2 The personnel entering the laboratory should strictly observe the routine operating procedures of the laboratory.
3 When using or testing toxic, hazardous and infectious substances, they should be operated in the designated location and clearly marked to indicate what kind of operation is being carried out or will be carried out continuously, and the corresponding post-processing should be carried out after the completion of the experiment; strong acids and other corrosive and irritating reagents should be opened for use in a fume cupboard, and the remaining reagents should be processed accordingly.
4 laboratory precision instruments are used, must be cleared in a timely manner, and make use of the registration.
5 All reagents, appliances used, must be put back to the original place, the experimental table and the experimental cabinet reagents, appliances, in order to prevent cross-contamination, do not use at will.
6 Comply with laboratory safety measures and familiarize yourself with facilities such as alarms, smoke evacuation, fire fighting, accident lighting, etc., the use of corrosive, explosive, flammable and toxic substances and the corresponding safety measures.
7 The last person to leave the laboratory is required to check that all labeled instruments and power supplies are turned off.
1.3 Incident Analysis and Reporting System
1 Accident in this system means:
1.1 Anyone who damages precision instruments and valuable utensils resulting in direct and indirect economic losses of 500 yuan or more.
1.2 Anyone who violates the operating procedures, neglects his/her duties and causes combustion, explosion, workplace accidents or serious losses.
1.3 Those who have caused serious consequences or economic losses due to the disclosure of test data or technical information.
1.4 Loss of confidential documents and technical files.
1.5 Failure to maintain water, electricity and gas equipment in a timely manner leads to serious consequences.
1.6 Any other negligence resulting in serious consequences.
1.7 A person who has caused illness or injury to another laboratory member as a result of a laboratory accident or omission.
2 After the accident, timely measures should be taken to prevent the accident from expanding and to minimize and eliminate the effects of the accident.
3 When an accident occurs, it should be reported to the relevant personnel in a timely manner so that it can be dealt with as appropriate, and should not be withheld, or else the treatment will be aggravated.
4 Those responsible for major accidents shall be held financially and legally liable, depending on the circumstances.
Attachment: Contents of “Accident Report Form”
1 Overview of the Incident: time, place, persons involved and witnesses
2 Brief description of the incident
3 Accident losses (including direct and indirect economic losses, treatment costs, impact, etc.)
4 Remedial and improvement measures taken
5 Key lessons
6 Disposition.
1.4 Instrumentation and Reagent Management System
1 Instrumentation acceptance, installation and commissioning should be completed after the production certificate of conformity, instruction manual and other complete information should be organized and filed for preservation.
2 All instruments and equipment should be identified for specialized storage, regular inspection, maintenance and repair. General instruments and equipment, the use of personnel must be proficient in the operating procedures, beginners should be skilled in the operating procedures of the instrument under the guidance of the operation of personnel. Valuable instruments should be operated by specialized personnel.
3 Anyone must be used in accordance with the operating procedures of the instrument, if there is any abnormality, you must immediately stop using and report to the relevant personnel. Only after troubleshooting will it be allowed to be used, and it is strictly prohibited to work with faults.
4 No outside personnel will be allowed to operate the laboratory instruments alone.
5 General reagents are neatly arranged in reagent cabinets and organized periodically as needed.
6 Self-prepared reagents need to be labeled on the reagent bottle with the name of the reagent, the person who prepared it, and the date of preparation.
7 Toxic and hazardous reagents must be fully and clearly labeled and marked and placed in a safe and secure place.
1.5 Laboratory Hygiene and Office Systems
1 Laboratory health by temporary workers to arrange cleaning, other personnel should respect the labor of others, abide by social morality, and consciously maintain the environmental health of the laboratory.
2 Visitors to the laboratory must be accompanied by the relevant laboratory personnel before entering the laboratory.
3 The laboratory configuration of the computer should be used for work and study, work time is not allowed to play games, watching movies, online chatting, and strive to improve the efficiency and quality of work.
1.6 Research Records and Retention System
1 All research work is recorded in the prescribed research log book.
2 The content of the record should be true, systematic, neat and original, mainly including the date of the experiment, temperature and humidity, experimental methods, operation steps, the name of the instruments and equipment used, experimental results, data processing, results analysis, discussion and so on.
3 The scientific research record book is an integral part of the scientific and technological archives and an important basis for publishing papers and declaring achievements. The page number of the original scientific research record book must be indicated in the application form for proof of publication.
4 Students are required to submit a lab notebook for graduation.