Yftah Tal-Gan’s research group is interdisciplinary, facilitating critical scientific findings, but also posing unique safety challenges. To mitigate those risks, Tal-Gan and his students have kept safety at the forefront of their work, earning them University-wide recognition with the 2026 Excellence in Laboratory Safety Award.

“We want to do good science, but part of doing good science is doing safe science."

Tal-Gan’s research works on a crucial problem: antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens, at the intersection of chemistry and biology. Tal-Gan’s lab operates at biosafety level two, because they work with agents associated with human diseases.

“We handle dangerous and toxic chemicals, but we also work with bacteria and most of them are bacterial pathogens,” Tal-Gan said.

Those working in Tal-Gan’s lab, including both undergraduate and graduate students, must know how to use fume hoods and biosafety cabinets and to remember that what is safe in a chemistry lab or a biology lab may not be safe in Tal-Gan’s lab. Each student is onboarded in the group by attending all the Environmental Health & Safety trainings necessary for the group.

“I think our EH&S department is doing an excellent job in working with (principal investigators) to implement and understand the safety concerns and to provide a lot of safety training for all the students,” Tal-Gan said. “They’ve been very helpful.”

Tal-Gan also has a lab-specific safety training, which includes regular review of standard operating procedures.

“Every time new students join, we need to reinforce that again,” Tal-Gan said.

The group updates the SOPs whenever new chemicals or pathogens are used in the lab, and a new experiment is another opportunity for students to review the safety materials. Tal-Gan said he tells students that their experiments can fail, and that’s fine. He’s most concerned that they stay safe. The students also pay attention to safety protocols their lab mates are implementing.

Tal-Gan added that while he can encourage safe practices as much as possible, the lab members have to buy into that mindset as well.

“It's an award for the group and the students,” Tal-Gan said. “I think (it is) a testament (to) the students’ hard work and their culture of being safe.”

Keely Rodriguez ’26 Ph.D. (molecular biosciences), who recently graduated and is now a faculty member at Evergreen State College, was a doctoral student in Tal-Gan’s lab.

“It really is easy to do a safety analysis and figure out where you might need to be a bit more careful,” Rodriguez said.

Tal-Gan said that the safety culture has been strong for several years in the lab, having earned the runner-up award for safety from the Laboratory Safety Committee. The Excellence in Laboratory Safety Award promotes a culture of safety and honors faculty who contribute to that culture.

Luis Barthel-Rosa, a member of the Laboratory Safety Committee, shared that Tal-Gan’s research group was selected as the 2026 award winner because the group has demonstrated a strong, shared commitment to safety and that prior nominations to the award further reflect the group’s longstanding commitment to safety.

“We want to do good science, but part of doing good science is doing safe science,” Tal-Gan said.