Safety | Guelph - iGEM 2022

Project Ceres’ Safety

We wanted to create a project that would have the least possible off target effects, especially since this project was designed to be a product that greenhouse growers could actually implement. Through careful consideration of Cry proteins we decided against their use due to their lack of target insect specificity. After consultations with our PIs about the safety of our project and experimental design, we were recommended safer alternatives to execute our project. This was part of our choice to use Cyt proteins as our toxic compound. We also considered safety while choosing our chassis, Bacillus subtilis. We chose this chassis for a variety of reasons, but a key one was because it is non-pathogenic, and naturally found in the soil rhizosphere.

The choice to use the Pgrac promoter was made to give growers more control over our pesticide, but also for an added level of safety. Inclusion of the IPTG-responsive promoter ensures that in an instance where the pesticide was no longer wanted, or if there was escape of our organism into the greenhouse environment, it would not constitutively produce cytotoxic proteins. We considered implementation of a kill switch, however given the iGEM competition timeframe this was not possible. That said, we consider the addition of a kill switch to be a key aspect of future directions for Project Ceres.

In addition to this level of project safety, our experiments were carried out under the supervision of Project Lead or Director team members that are experienced in executing our protocols to ensure the safety of our general members. Lastly, lab clean up and maintenance of our lab space was performed weekly to ensure our members were able to work in a distraction free and clean environment.

Lab Safety

The University of Guelph advocates for the safety of all of its members ranging from staff to students. iGEM Guelph advocates for this as well. This is why all members of the wet lab team undergo many different safety training sessions through the Environmental Health and Safety modules before they enter the lab space. This is followed up with a laboratory orientation and a week of “teaching experiments’ for our general members. Lab Members are accompanied by more experienced Project Leads to ensure experiments are done safely. In addition to this, we at iGEM Guelph have set strong work-alone policies for our Project Leads that involve regular check-ins.

iGEM Guelph’s lab is Level 2 biocontainment, and is fully equipped with regularly checked safety tools. These include a shower, eye wash station, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and proper disposal systems for glassware and biohazardous waste.

iGEM Guelph’s lab space