Lab Safety
Nazarbayev University has provided us with a laboratory from June to October, 2022. We followed all the instructions regarding laboratory safety.
Training
Prior to initiating the experiments in the laboratory, all 6 members of our implementation team attended safety training organized by Aigerim Negmatova, the Laboratory Coordinator at Nazarbayev University, School of Sciences and Humanities. The training introduced laboratory safety guidelines, risk and hazard management, safe storage, proper handling of laboratory equipment, and waste management.
Photos of Laboratory 1
Photos of Laboratory 2
Safety in Our Project
Microorganisms
In our experiments we used E. coli DH5α and E. coli BL21, microorganisms that comply with Biosafety Laboratory Level-1. These strains present minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment and are expected to have limited survivability in the environment and often have auxotrophic requirements, which are unlikely to be satisfied outside of laboratory culture. Experiments involving these strains were carried out in the Biosafety Level-2 cabinet following proper training and under close supervision of a senior researcher, Yerkezhan Kalikanova, and Teaching Assistants of School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University. Basic BSL-1 and BSL-2 safety protocols, including waste management, glassware sterilization, and use of personal protection equipment (PPE) was adopted as per the regulatory agency recommendation and university regulations. Our brief guideline on BSL levels, and specifically informational posters for print are attached above.
B5R gene
The pVax1 plasmid containing B5R gene was provided, within the NATO Multi Year Project of the Science for Peace and Security Program (grant G5486), by the Italian component (Dr. Carlo Zanotto, University of Milan) to the Kazakh component (Dr. Luca Vangelista, Nazarbayev University School of Medicine). Although B5R protein is found to act as a virulence factor in members of Orthopoxvirus genus, B5R gene encoding the recombinant protein does not cause any hazard on its own. We aim to obtain 1st sushi and 4 sushi domains of B5R protein by bacterial expression system, which makes the part non-hazardous in the context of our project.
Chemicals
Hazardous chemicals such as TBE buffer, glacial acetic acid, imidazole, beta-mercaptoethanol , acrylamide, TEMED, kanamycin sulfate were used in the laboratory. All of the experiments involving these chemicals were done according to safety procedures by first studying the safety data sheets, and then performing the experiment in a chemical fume hood. All of the work was performed in lab coats, safety gloves and safety goggles. In case of accidents, sink and eyewash stations next to the fume hood were available.
Biodefense and Biosecurity
We have also assessed the safety of our project through the framework for assessing concerns proposed by the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Strategies for Identifying and Addressing Potential Biodefense Vulnerabilities Posed by Synthetic Biology. Among these, our project could raise concerns in these fields:
Since we work on synthesizing recombinant proteins of known pathogens it could be assumed that we synthesize virulent and dangerous proteins. However, these recombinant proteins are not virulent on their own and cannot be hazardous unless they are a part of fully replicated viral structures (even like that, the system is not likely to work).
As explained earlier, recombinant proteins are 1) safe and non-virulent, 2) are used only in small quantities to verify that our antibody-coated optic-fiber system is capable of binding and detection. None of the used methods or procedures are expected to make bacteria of our interest (E.coli) more pathogenic either.
There is a concern that the easier it is to use the technology, the easier it becomes to deliberately misuse it for malicious purposes. However, as we reiterated previously, we do not work directly with the sequence of the pathogens nor pathogens themselves; our end products are neither virulent nor hazardous, and our hardware cannot be used as a weapon.
As outlined earlier, our project inherently is not capable of producing virulent or pathogenic biological parts. We have followed standard and publicly available molecular biology protocols. We made sure to clearly state everywhere that we are not working with pathogens nor are attempting to create new ones, as well as avoided using an original sequence of the vaccinia virus in our project. We hope to make clear that our goal is to detect biothreats, not create them.