Safety

Laboratory safety

The iGEM Rapa-OT team fully complies with the iGEM competition safety and security policies.

On the first day, we entered the laboratory, we all received laboratory safety training from instructor Shi in SABS Biological Laboratory. The laboratory is called “subcat laboratory”, and it has been classified as a biosafety level 1 laboratory. Our instructor also provided comprehensive instruction on the use of all instruments, and all experimental procedures were performed under the supervision of our instructor Shi.

1. Wear appropriate personal protective equipment, including but not limited to lab coats, gloves, etc.
2. Do not bring any beverages or food into the laboratory.
3. Dispose of waste that may contain bacteria or any alive bacteria, all equipment used as well as waste will go through an inactivation process to avoid contamination.
4. Clean desks and wash hands before leaving the laboratory.

Project Safety

In the vast majority of experiments, we used some safe and common laboratory strains, such as competent cells Escherichia coli DH5α, competent cells Escherichia coli ET12567/pUZ8002, wild-type Streptomyces rapamycinicus NRRL 5491 and mutant strain ΔM271_14685/M271_14690. These are commonly used model organisms that have been shown to be very safe, causing little or no harm to humans.

Ethical Concern

When it comes to GMO crops such as corn, there is a public misconception that it is somewhat dangerous, leading to fears of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). However, with the development of synthetic biology, genetic modification technology has become more mature and safer. In our project, we obtained the required mutant strains through gene knockout technology that optimizes the metabolic regulatory network of rapamycin biosynthesis, thereby improving the fermentation level of rapamycin, bringing good news to patients with organ transplantation.