Safety

Laboratory safety

Laboratory safety is one of our major concerns in the team CariesFlor. We strictly follow the “Do Not Release Policy” and “Safety and Security Policies” listed by the Safety Security Committee and Responsible Conduct Committee. We prohibit any human experimentation as we know that our GMO product would not be safe for humans or the environment without extensive testing, and we guarantee that all members of our team and the environment will not be exposed to any danger posed by our experiments. The biosafety level of our laboratory is grade 1 meaning that only low-risk microbes, which pose little to no threat of infection in healthy adults, are involved in our experiment. In addition, we all received laboratory safety training from our instructor Mr. Lu online which regulates our team members when experimenting.

There are several basic rules that we must obey in the laboratory:

1. All members need to wear appropriate protective equipment including lab coats and gloves;
2. No food or drinks are allowed in the laboratory;
3. Experimental wastes need to be disposed of in a hazardous waste bin in order to avoid contamination since the waste might contain germs or active bacteria;
4. Table and hands need to be washed and sanitized with 70% alcohol before and after the experiment.

Project safety

The microorganisms we used are non-pathogenic E. coli DH5a, E. coli Nissle 1917, and Streptococcus mutants, which have been proven to be not harmful to the human body.