Safety

Describe all the safety issues of your project.

Safety and Security Award

The goal of our project is to attempt an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of eutrophication. Eutrophication is a common problem in bodies of water all around the world. It is caused by fertilizers that contain nitrates, intended to boost plant growth and flowering. These fertilizers are used in crops near water bodies, and eventually they end up in them. As a result, nitrates cause a dramatic increase in the population of phytoplankton. One of our main goals was ensuring that our project has minimal negative environmental and safety impact. Therefore, we chose safety level 1 organisms in our experiments. By following some basic safety regulations, we were able to complete our project at a high level with no negative impact on health and safety.

All our wet lab members wore lab coats and safety goggles at all times when in the lab. All work benches were difinfected before and after entry to the lab and the handling of equipment.

Amongst other reasons, in order to minimize the risk of our filter breaking and the enzymes flowing in the bodies of water, our filter was composed of 3 layers. Potential contamination of the sea with nitrate reductase enzymes may have adverse effects on sea organisms, which we have not studied or

Safety in our Procedures

We will isolate the gene for nitrate reductase (nirS) from the bacterium Pseudomonas azotoformans (Safety level 1) and clone it in an expression vector (pET 29c).

The nirS gene will be amplified using PCR and specific primers which also include restriction enzyme sites to enable cloning in a plasmid vector.

Then the plasmid is used to transform E. coli cells (Safety level 1).

The enzyme will then be immobilized on a 3D printed filter that will reduce the concentration of nitrates found in water. So the engineered organism will be E. coli transformed with pET vector which contains a copy of the nirS gene from Pseudomonas azotoformans. Both organisms are Safety level 1.

To compete for the Safety and Security award, please describe your work on this page and also fill out the description on the judging form.

Please see the 2022 Awards Page for more information.

What should this page contain?

On this page of your wiki, you should write about how you are addressing any safety issues in your project. The wiki is a place where you can go beyond the questions on the safety forms, and write about whatever safety topics are most interesting in your project. (You do not need to copy your safety forms onto this wiki page.)

Please visit the Safety Policies page to find this year's safety requirements & deadlines, and to learn about safe & responsible research in iGEM.

Safe Project Design

Does your project include any safety features? Have you made certain decisions about the design to reduce risks? Write about them here! For example:

Choosing a non-pathogenic chassis
Choosing parts that will not harm humans / animals / plants
Substituting safer materials for dangerous materials in a proof-of-concept experiment
Including an "induced lethality" or "kill-switch" device

Safe Lab Work

What safety procedures do you use every day in the lab? Did you perform any unusual experiments, or face any unusual safety issues? Write about them here!