Training Information for the Khokha and Deniz Labs, as well as PGDP students

Animal Research Requirements

Please refer to this webpage for complete information on Animal Research Training requirements. If you have any questions about the process, email Maura or Steve.

Here is a brief overview:

The first section, “Assignment to an IACUC Protocol”, will be submitted by Maura (for the Khokha Lab), or Steve (for the Deniz Lab). Please email Maura or Steve with your Net ID for this.

In the "Obtain Medical Clearance from Employee Health" section, download the Initial Animal Handler's Health History Questionnaire. Fill in and send to Employee Health. Note: Under Species, select "Frog".
If you have not received any notification from Employee Health regarding your medical approval after 1 week, email or call them to check the status of your approval.

The next section, "Review the Training Policy", lists the IACUC policies you should read. Here are direct links to two important Policies.

• Reporting Animal Welfare Concerns at Yale
• Euthanasia Policy

The "Fulfill Training Requirements" section describes the online training you need to complete.
If you are new personnel and don’t already have access to the Animal Learning Library (ALL), download and follow the instructions to login.

Complete the following courses on the ALL:

• Working with the IACUC
• Reporting Adverse Events at Yale
• YARC Facility Training Part I
• Pain Management in Lab Animals
• Lab Housing and Non-YARC Managed Housing Facilities
• Working with Amphibians (found under the Species Specific tab in the left side menu)
  
• Working with the Laboratory Xenopus (also under the Species Specific tab)
  

Please let Maura or Steve know after you have completed these courses and have received notification that your Medical Surveillance has been cleared. They will submit your application to be added to our Animal Protocol at this time.

Access to Animal areas

Refer to the Obtaining Facility Access Section of the Animal Training information page for a list of requirements to access the animal areas. Please note: If you will be working with X. laevis, you DO need to take the YARC Facility Training Part II (link under #4A) for our laevis room in SHM IG49. If you will only be working with X. tropicalis, you DO NOT need to take the Part II training. You should however, arrange a tour of our X. tropicalis housing facility in WWW with Maura or Steve.

Hands-on training in Lab

You will be trained hands on in lab to work with your species. This training will be done by an experienced lab member, and should include:

• Lab Housing rules for the species
• General health, use and care
• Care logs
• Other procedures relevant to your project
• Please check with Maura, Emily or Steve to see who is best to train you in the hands-on procedures.
  

If you are a new lab member, complete your training Compliance Assessment via the link on the bottom of the main Yale Training page. You will need to login first. Please ask Maura, Steve or Emily to help you with this to make sure all your necessary training is tagged, and things you don't need to complete are not.

The following general lab safety courses should appear in your list of mandatory trainings after you complete the Compliance Assessment. If any of them do not, please complete them in any case. They are required by Yale Environmental Health and Safety. All of these courses are found under the EH+S category on the Yale Training Website.

EHS > Waste Management > DOT Regulated Biomedical Waste Training

EHS > Biological Safety> Biosafety Part 1 web-based

EHS > Biological Safety> Biosafety Part 2 web-based

EHS > Chemical Safety> Laboratory Chemical Safety Web Based

EHS > Biological Safety > Bloodborne Pathogen for Laboratory Personnel-Web Based

Regarding the last training, you may not be working with human pathogens, but human blood and saliva is processed in the lab, so you need to be familiar with safety issues around human materials.

Our Animal Use Protocol (AUP) covers all aspects of animal use in our lab, such as who is allowed to work with the animals, what experiments we can do, how many animals we can keep, husbandry policies, and a host of other things. After you are added to our Animal Protocol, you will have read-only access to our protocol at:

https://ires-iacuc.yale.edu/IACUC-Prod

.

The following General Lab Safety and Etiquette guidelines are important to know. You will receive an in-person review of these rules, but please read them over here:

No eating or drinking in lab, no food/drink containers in lab trash

EH+S requires gloves, labcoat, close toed shoes and safety glasses when working at the bench.

More in depth information on Yale Policy on Personal Protective Equipment can be found on the Yale Environmental Health & Safety Website:

It is important to know where to dispose of certain types of waste in the lab. There is a visual flowchart posted in lab. If you are unsure where an item should be disposed of, ask Maura, Cyndi or Steve.

Biohazard bins vs sharps boxes vs trash all take different kind of waste:

Glass and Serological pipettes: in plastic sharps box, NOT trash or biohazard bin

Pipette tips: in biohazard bin or plastic sharps box, NOT trash

Broken, non-hazardous glass: in "Broken Glass" box by 408 lab door

Ethidium bromide waste (gels): in small Biohazard bin labeled "EtBr waste"

Chemical storage/safety

Volatile or hazardous chemicals in lab are generally separated into secondary containers by type (acids, bases etc.). Hazardous chemicals are kept in storage cabinets and should be used in the fume hood with gloves, lab coat and safety goggles. You will receive further training on this topic when you complete the online Chemical Safety course (link given next section), but be aware it is important to work with these chemicals according to guidelines. Don't hesitate to ask if you are unsure about the use or disposal of any chemical.

Label all chemical bottles with contents, date made and initials. Please make a note on whiteboard near door of room 408 when we are running low on something; include your name and the date. If you are unsure what "low" is, write it on the board - better safe than sorry!