safety, can’t live with them; can’t live without them

as the problem of insomnia becoming more and more wide-spread in contemperary generation, the appetite of melatonin has grown to an incredible level which had never seen before. Generally, the melatonin is produced by using traditional chemistry production methods. Nevertheless, we have found an alternative way to produce the melatonin by using the technique of bio-synthesis, which coincides with the ideology of IGEM. In this experiment, we expect to utilize the transgenosis to increase the concentration of melatonin in Populus,helping the production of melatonin by using the bio-technique. One of the most essential factors in this program is safety. We set a list of guide lines to ensure the safety, not only for the laboratory, but also for the environment.

in order to avoid some unnecessary accidents to happen, all of the team members have been given the instruction menu, allowing us to familliarize with the procedure. At the same time, the professors and tutors offered us some trainings about the equipment and operation.

-do not wear slippers, shorts, skirts and sandals in the lab

-long hair needs to be tied up

-Wear goggles, protecting clothes and gloves.

-separate the dry and wet waste produced during the experiment

-do not touch the switches or handles while wearing the gloves

-drinking water is not allowed in the laboratory

-make sure to put the apparatuses and equipments in their original positions before leaving the laboratory

· be careful while using the corrosive chemicals ( e.g. NaOH, HCl)

· set a contaminated area:

we set an area specific for doing the experiment procedures including harmful chemicals. To be more specific, the goldview, new nucleic acid dyes, used during gel-making is carcinogenic. The operation area of goldview needs to be isolated from other operation areas. in addition, two layers of gloves are required with additional plastic gloves wearing outside.

While using the microwave to heat the agarose solution, it is necessary to wear the cotton gloves to prevent scald.

· During electrophoresis, do not touch the whole apparatus to avoid electric shock

· when cutting gel, we will use the shading plate to protect our eyes from being harmed by the ultraviolet.

· be careful when using the knives, scissors, tweezers and pipette guns

Escherichia coli and Agrobacterium are required to work as carriers of the targeted gene, whereas both of them have the potential negative effect upon humans' bodies. E.coil may cause the gastrointestinal tract infection under certain conditions. To guarantee the activity of bacteria and other enzymes, they have to be put into the fridge under the temperature of -20 degree Celcius. What's more, once we take it out of the refrigerator, the whole operation have to be done on the ice, preventing the degradation of them.

Hence, the solution containing the bacteria will be transfer-ed to the clean bench for the following steps. The clean bench is able to assure that the apparatus and reagant will not be contaminated by other bacteria in the surrounding. At the same time, it can protect ourselves from the infectious bacteria.

To prevent from being affected by the covid virus, the covid and body temperature tests are done regularly before entering the labs, while masks are asked to wear all the time.