Team:IIT Bombay India/Safety

Biosafety

At IIT Bombay we have a well equipped lab and take the issue of biosafety seriously. We have an Institute level committee, which looks into the issues related to biosafety and at the same time we are given regular tutorials on Biosafety issues. All the four biological Parts developed by our team, namely, BBa_K255001, BBa_K255002, BBa_K255003 and BBa_K255004 consists of standard parts and do not produce any harmful product and is safe to humans and environment The plasmids synthesize proteins in the host cells (E.coli) which regulate lactose metabolism or serve to characterize the expression. We have specifically followed standard lab practices at all times as enumerated below:

1. Persons wash their hands after they handle viable materials, after removing gloves, and before leaving the laboratory.

2. Eating, drinking, smoking, handling contact lenses, and applying cosmetics are not permitted in the work areas. Food is stored outside the work area in cabinets or refrigerators designated for this purpose only.

3. Mouth pipetting is prohibited; mechanical pipetting devices are used.

4. Work surfaces are decontaminated on completion of work or at the end of the day and after any spill or splash of viable material with disinfectants that are effective against the agents of concern.

5. All cultures, stocks, and other regulated wastes are decontaminated before disposal by an approved decontamination method such as autoclaving. Materials to be decontaminated outside of the immediate laboratory are placed in a durable, leak proof container and closed for transport from the laboratory. Materials to be decontaminated off-site from the facility are packaged in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal regulations, before removal from the facility.

6. The laboratory director ensures that laboratory and support personnel receive appropriate training on the potential hazards associated with the work involved, the necessary precautions to prevent exposures, and the exposure evaluation procedures.

7. Each laboratory contains a sink for hand washing.

8. The biowaste, spent media and cell cultures are autoclaved before disposal. Further solid waste from the experiments are collected and dispatched for incineration

In reference to the safety requirements page on the iGEM site, For iGEM 2009 teams are asked to detail how they approached any issues of biological safety associated with their projects.

Specifically, teams should consider the following four questions:

1. Would any of your project ideas raise safety issues in terms of:

researcher safety,

public safety, or

environmental safety?

Our project raises no special issues of safety.

2. Is there a local biosafety group, committee, or review board at your institution?

As mentioned above, we have an institute level committee which looks into issues related to biosafety and gives regular tutorials on biosafety issues.

3. What does your local biosafety group think about your project?

We had made a brief presentation of our project for our biosafety group. Since all the experiments are pretty routine, posing no special hazard risks, our institute level committee had no special instructions for our project.

4. Do any of the new BioBrick parts that you made this year raise any safety issues?

If yes, did you document these issues in the Registry?

No, our BioBrick parts don’t raise any new safety issues.