Centre for Structural Biology

Protein production and Bioreactor facility

Steps necessary to use the facility

1. Initial contact

To discuss your work please contact either

James Mansfield, the facility technician

Jeremy Moore, the facility manager

James will discuss the work, what you need to provide, when you can access the facility and what training you will need.

Once an experiment is accepted, you will need to do the following:

2. Safety:

  • Please note the large lab with the 50 litre fermentor is category 1 and can only be used for class 1 organisms.
  • Please see the Safety Department web site for all forms and advice on health and safety:
  • It is the responsibility of the Principle investigator to ensure that all health and safety paperwork is in order.

For GM organisms you will need to:

  • provide a copy of your formA.
  • Make and read a copy of our generic risk assessment for the Bioreactor facility (see attached documents), IC reference 01493.1.
  • Produce a form C if necessary to cover work at larger volumes, referring to the Bioreactor facility form A as well as you own form A.
  • These forms should be passed by the safety committee before work begins in the Bioreactor suite.

For non-genetically modified organisms you will need to:

  • complete a DP1 form (Risk assessment for an activity involving the deliberate use of a biological agent).
  • You can use our generic DP1 form for the Bioreactor facility if this helps you to get started, but please ensure that all the sections are updated for your project.
  • Provide us with a copy of your DP1 form.

These forms should be completed and signed off by the safety committee before work begins, so please leave yourself enough time to do this before your experiment starts.

Payment:

Provide a GL journal covering the costs for use of the facility

If James is going to do the work for you

You will need to provide James with:

  • Details of the media and the protocol for the fermentation
  • A culture for James to seed the fermentor.

If you plan to work in room 191 yourself, you will need to be trained

  • Read the local rules for working in the lab
  • Read the risk assessment for the Bioreactor suite
  • Read the standard operating procedures for the equipment you plan to use.
  • Sign the training record to show which documents you have read.
  • James will provide training
  • The user and James should complete together a training record sheet to cover use of every piece of equipment used.
  • When new equipment is used, please record further training in your training record sheet.
  • No-one should ever use equipment without first being suitably trained and without recording the training on their personal training sheet.