Some words of caution are in order. No matter how complete your list seems or how complex the compatibility matrix appears, there is always the exception chemical, the one that falls into two (or more) groups. Beware of this and seek expert advice when you are unsure about safe storage. In closing, here are a few more guidelines for safe chemical segregation:

- Do not store chemicals alphabetically as a general group. Separate into compatible groups first.
- Do not store chemicals on high shelves or in high cabinets. A good rule is to store them at eye level or below.
- Do not store chemicals on bench tops or in hoods, except for those being used currently.
- Do not store incompatible materials one above the other on shelving in the lab. Prevent any chance of accidental mixing.
- Do separate chemicals into their organic and inorganic families and then compatible groups.
- Do provide a definite storage place for each chemical and return the chemical to that location after each use.
- Do store volatile toxics and odiferous chemicals in a ventilated cabinet.
- Do store flammable liquids in approved flammable storage cabinets or safety cans.
- Do ensure that shelving materials are appropriate and compatible with the chemicals stored on them (e.g., do not store oxidizers on wooden shelves).

Finally, for those of us in seismically active regions, there are additional precautions (and probably regulations) to address. In these areas we should have lipped shelving and secured storage units, at a minimum. Check with your local authorities for additional guidance. As always, safety first.

Comments or questions are always welcome. Contact thesafetyguys@labx.com.

Vince McLeod is an American Board of Industrial Hygiene–certified industrial hygienist and the senior industrial hygienist with the University of Florida’s Environmental Health and Safety division. He has 22 years of occupational health and safety experience at the University of Florida, and he specializes in conducting exposure assessments and health hazard evaluations for the university’s 2,200-plus research laboratories.

References

1. Hazard Investigation: Improving Reactive Hazard Management. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Report No. 2001-01-H, NTIS No. PB2002- 108795. 2002.
2. Laboratory Safety Incidents. Laboratory Health and Safety Committee, American Industrial Hygiene Association. March 2009.
3. NFPA 55 Compressed Gases and Cryogenic Fluids Code, 2010 edition. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA. 2004.

www.nfpa.org/AboutTheCodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=55.

Some words of caution are in order. No matter how complete your list seems or how complex the compatibility matrix appears, there is always the exception chemical, the one that falls into two (or more) groups. Beware of this and seek expert advice when you are unsure about safe storage. In closing, here are a few more guidelines for safe chemical segregation:

- Do not store chemicals alphabetically as a general group. Separate into compatible groups first.
- Do not store chemicals on high shelves or in high cabinets. A good rule is to store them at eye level or below.
- Do not store chemicals on bench tops or in hoods, except for those being used currently.
- Do not store incompatible materials one above the other on shelving in the lab. Prevent any chance of accidental mixing.
- Do separate chemicals into their organic and inorganic families and then compatible groups.
- Do provide a definite storage place for each chemical and return the chemical to that location after each use.
- Do store volatile toxics and odiferous chemicals in a ventilated cabinet.
- Do store flammable liquids in approved flammable storage cabinets or safety cans.
- Do ensure that shelving materials are appropriate and compatible with the chemicals stored on them (e.g., do not store oxidizers on wooden shelves).

Finally, for those of us in seismically active regions, there are additional precautions (and probably regulations) to address. In these areas we should have lipped shelving and secured storage units, at a minimum. Check with your local authorities for additional guidance. As always, safety first.

References

1. Hazard Investigation: Improving Reactive Hazard Management. U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Report No. 2001-01-H, NTIS No. PB2002- 108795. 2002.
2. Laboratory Safety Incidents. Laboratory Health and Safety Committee, American Industrial Hygiene Association. March 2009.
3. NFPA 55 Compressed Gases and Cryogenic Fluids Code, 2010 edition. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA. 2004. www.nfpa.org/AboutTheCodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=55.

Additional Resources

Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Disposal of Chemicals. National Research Council. National Academy Press. Washington, D.C. Latest edition.
NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Publication 2005-149. www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/.
CRC Handbook of Laboratory Safety, 5th edition. CRC Press, LLC, Boca Raton, FL. 2000. Compatibility chart online here: rehs.rutgers.edu/pdf_files/ Chemical_Comp_Chart.pdf.
A Method for Determining the Compatibility of Chemical Mixtures. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH. EPA-600/2-80-076. 1980. Compatibility chart online here: rehs.rutgers.edu/pdf_files/ Chemical_compatibility.html.

Tracy Vence

The transposon was chosen by the International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Research for enabling stable gene transfer in vertebrates.

The International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Research (ISMCBBPR) has named “Sleeping Beauty” (SB)/transposase SB100X as Molecule of the Year 2009 as part of its annual competition. According to the ISMCBBPR, Sleeping Beauty was chosen by voters because researchers have demonstrated its ability to enable robust, stable gene transfer in vertebrates. The synthetic transposon received the top honor over 14 other nominees, including runners-up sarcosine, human occludin protein, and mina. Each nominated molecule was featured during the past year in a peer-reviewed research paper that described the protocol used to decipher its role.

Diagram outlining the life cycle of the “Sleeping Beauty” (SB) transposon. Source: WikiMedia Commons.

SB, when combined with a transposase, mediates the stable integration and long-term expression of a gene of interest. A team of researchers—from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin-Buch and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium—demonstrated that SB/SB100X efficiently mediated gene transfer in human CD34+ cells enriched in hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells. The novel transposase was described in the June 2009 Nature Genetics paper, “Molecular evolution of a novel hyperactive Sleeping Beauty transposase enables robust stable gene transfer in vertebrates.”According to the researchers, SB/SB100X has the potential to improve current transfection methods used in functional genomics and gene therapy.

“The synthetic transposon ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and the corresponding hyperactive transposase SB100X bring about a revolutionary technology platform for genetic engineering in vertebrates,” the ISMCBBPR web site reads. “This molecule holds great promise for gene therapy as it addresses a major hurdle in gene therapeutic applications, especially those revealed by viral transduction approaches [and] site-specific integration.”

Seven presidents of international molecular and cellular biology and biotechnology organizations judged the competition. The judges considered each molecule’s potential for future contribution to biology or medical research.

Past awardees include anti-SAG 421-433 catalytic IgA, protein 4E1 , and the ligand Imidazoleacetic acid-ribotide.

Keywords:  “Sleeping Beauty” transposon transposase gene expression gene therapy

Every technical aspect relevant to “microarray” technology is described in details.

Virtual Chem Book online offers spanning scientific disciplines from general chemistry to biochemistry.

Information available online about 800.000 commercially available chemical compounds. At the “Chembank” users can search through chemical data by several means, including structure, substructure,  similarity to a structure by description, function, assay, name and even a particular person or vendor.

The existence of element 117 and its decay chain to elements 115 and 113 have been confirmed by a second international team led by scientists at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an accelerator laboratory. The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal, Physical Review Letters.

The next step is for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to accept the confirmation. The IUPAC will review the new findings and the original research and decide whether further experiments are needed before acknowledging the element’s discovery. After acceptance, IUPAC would determine which institution may propose names.

In the German experiments, scientists bombarded a berkelium target with calcium ions until they collided and formed element 117. Element 117 then decayed into elements 115 and 113. Livermore researchers Narek Gharibyan and Dawn Shaughnessy and former postdoc Evgeny Tereshatov participated in the German experiment.

Lawrence Livermore teamed with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR) in 2004 to discover elements 113 and 115. The LLNL/JINR team then jointly worked with researchers from the Research Institute for Advanced Reactors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt Univ. and the Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, to discover element 117 in 2010.

Elements beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as super-heavy elements. The most long-lived ones are expected to be situated on a so-called “island of stability,” where nuclei with extremely long half-lives should be found.

Although super-heavy elements have not been found in nature, they can be produced by accelerating beams of nuclei and shooting them at the heaviest possible target nuclei. Fusion of two nuclei — a very rare event — occasionally produces a super-heavy element. They generally only exist for a short time

Font:  Laboratory Equipment

The existence of element 117 and its decay chain to elements 115 and 113 have been confirmed by a second international team led by scientists at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an accelerator laboratory. The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal, Physical Review Letters.

The next step is for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) to accept the confirmation. The IUPAC will review the new findings and the original research and decide whether further experiments are needed before acknowledging the element’s discovery. After acceptance, IUPAC would determine which institution may propose names.

In the German experiments, scientists bombarded a berkelium target with calcium ions until they collided and formed element 117. Element 117 then decayed into elements 115 and 113. Livermore researchers Narek Gharibyan and Dawn Shaughnessy and former postdoc Evgeny Tereshatov participated in the German experiment.

Lawrence Livermore teamed with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia (JINR) in 2004 to discover elements 113 and 115. The LLNL/JINR team then jointly worked with researchers from the Research Institute for Advanced Reactors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt Univ. and the Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, to discover element 117 in 2010.

Elements beyond atomic number 104 are referred to as super-heavy elements. The most long-lived ones are expected to be situated on a so-called “island of stability,” where nuclei with extremely long half-lives should be found.

Although super-heavy elements have not been found in nature, they can be produced by accelerating beams of nuclei and shooting them at the heaviest possible target nuclei. Fusion of two nuclei — a very rare event — occasionally produces a super-heavy element. They generally only exist for a short time

Font:  Laboratory Equipment

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