▼ SAFETY AND SECURITY ▼

Overview

Our laboratory work involves various equipment, chemicals, and synthetic organisms, making safety our primary concern during experiments. The following page summarizes the mandatory safety measures we adhere to in this iGEM project. Additional details are available in our team's Final Safety Form.

Regarding Prohibited Activities

We have utilized genetically modified E. coli as the focus of our project. We have not used any organisms nor any parts from an organism designated as Risk Group 3 or 4 by the White List. In addition, we have not exposed the modified E. coli beyond the lab, nor has the bacteria been tested on humans. We have complied with the regulations of the White list and all our work is covered by it as well.

Throughout the project, no animals were involved in the project, such as rats or fish, nor any high-order invertebrates, such as octopus and bees. Laboratory experiments were entirely conducted on the bacteria and only the bacteria, without any use of blood, DNA, other bodily specimens and health or psychological outcomes. Our sponsors, which are Twist Bioscience, Integrated DNA Technologies and Minione, supplied us with the E. coli used.

Last but not least, we have not biased the inheritance frequency of a genetic marker in an organism's progeny, nor have we increased the risk from antimicrobial resistance.

Regarding the Laboratory

Our project involves lab work and has the relevant safety and preventive measures in the case of accidents or leakage. The following photo showcases one of such measures:

Figure 1. A fire extinguisher and a fire blanket stationed in the laboratory.

The biosafety level of the work space in our project is Level 1, which is applied for standard microbiological labs. Our work area is an open bench environment, and has minimal need for containment due to the absence of organisms at Risk Group 2 or above and hazardous chemicals.

Identifying Project Risks

There are no hazards presented by the organisms, parts, chemicals, or experiments, as we only used E. coli, which is a Risk Group 1 organism. All of the parts, chemicals and experiments are also not hazardous.

Anticipating Future Risks

We acknowledge that our project does have potential bad outcomes, most notably it has a risk of bringing harm to the environment.

We as a team have conversed on the topic to prevent the spread of our genetically modified organisms, as our fully developed project would allow us to trap our E. coli inside a bioreactor which is a part of a larger hardware, the E. coli can only be released when a designated valve is opened on the hardware.

In a worst case scenario, even if the E. coli were to be accidentally released, it would be in a polluted river, our target environment, where an abundance of E. coli can already be found.

Managing Risks

In order to manage our risks, other than our supervisor, our lab technician, who has received full training on laboratory techniques, safety and management supported us in the lab.

Biosafety and Biosecurity Measures

The following details the biosafety and biosecurity measures used to manage to risks in the project:

• Accident reporting (system to record any lab accidents)
• Personal Protective Equipment / PPE (wearing lab coats, gloves, eye protection, etc.)
• Inventory controls (tracking who has what physical materials and where the materials are)
• Physical access controls (controlling who can access our lab or storage spaces)
• Data access controls (controlling who can access computers or databases)
• Lone Worker or Out of Hours policy (procedures for working alone or at times when normal support is unavailable)
• Medical surveillance (finding out if we get sick because of an organism or chemical we used)
• Waste management system (such as decontaminating waste before it leaves our institution)
• Additional containment (such as working at a higher biosafety level)

We mainly followed the "Safety in Science Laboratories" handbook by the Hong Kong Education Bureau.

Safety Training

Our team members have received safety training where we have learnt about the following items:

• Lab access and rules (e.g. appropriate clothing, eating and drinking)
• Responsible individuals (e.g. lab or departmental specialist or institutional biosafety officer)
• Differences between biosafety levels
• Biosafety equipment (e.g. biosafety cabinets)
• Good microbial technique
• Disinfection and sterilization
• Emergency procedures
• Rules for transporting samples between labs or shipping between institutions
• Physical biosecurity (e.g. tracking materials, access controls)
• Personnel biosecurity (e.g. watching for unusual behaviour)
• Data biosecurity / cyberbiosecurity (e.g. managing database access)
• Dual-use research and/or experiments of concern
• Chemical, fire and electrical safety

Additional Risk Management Actions

We also have done the following actions to further manage our risks in the project:

• Project-specific safety or security training (e.g. training on handling certain organisms)
• Evaluating countermeasures against our organism, parts, or other products (e.g. efficacy of therapeutics, detection in case of environmental release)
• Crafting a responsible communication plan (e.g. redacting specific information, highlighting the biosafety measures used)
• Modifying our experimental design or methodology (e.g. using an attenuated strain, employing biocontainment measures)
• Deciding not to do an activity (e.g. deciding against animal use experiments, avoiding infection experiments with a plant native to our country / region)