Biosafety

What is the role of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)?

The IBC is responsible for monitoring and ensuring compliance as well as review and approval of all research projects that involve biological material including rDNA materials and human gene therapy/gene transfer protocols.

What are Biosafety Levels (BSLs)?

According to the Center for Disease Control, there are four biosafety levels. Each level has specific controls for containment of microbes and biological agents. The primary risks that determine levels of containment are infectivity, severity of disease, transmissibility, and the nature of the work conducted. Origin of the microbe, or the agent in question, and the route of exposure are also important.

Each biosafety level has its own specific containment controls that are required for the following:

• Laboratory practices
• Safety equipment
• Facility construction

What are risk groups?

Risk groups are classify biological agents based on risk to humans. Biological agents are classified in a graded fashion. Risk groups range from RG1 - the lowest risk to RG4 - the highest risk.

• RG1 – Are not associated with disease in healthy adult humans or animals
• RG2 – Are associated with disease which is rarely serious and for which preventative or therapeutics is often available
• RG3 – Are associated with serious or lethal human disease for which preventative or therapeutics may be available
• RG4 – Are associated with lethal human disease for which preventative or therapeutics are not readily available

A protocol needs to be submitted if you will be conducting research, teaching, or testing for which you need to obtain or use live animals (all warm and cold-blooded vertebrates). If you are only doing in vitro work you do not need to submit a protocol.

Does the IBC work with other compliance committees? 

If there is a need for review by multiple compliance committees (e.g., IRB, SCRO and IACUC), the IBC will work with the other committees to ensure those approvals are in place.  IBC approval does not supersede or waive the requirement for independent review by other research compliance committees.

Do I need to complete an annual review?

Annually, Principal Investigators will receive a reminder email for their approved IBC Registration(s), requiring them to complete an annual review. This activity helps the PI remain compliant and aids in determining if major changes have been made to the registration that have not yet been approved.