Biosafety Bulletin Vol 2 Issue 3 – December 2015

A quarterly newsletter from the BU Office of Institutional Biosafety Committee
See the PDF of the December 2015 Biosafety Bulletin

Dual Use Research of Concern (“DURC”) policy updated

DURC is defined as: “life sciences research that, based on current understanding, can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, the environment, materiel, or national security”. On September 24th, 2014, the United States Government (“USG”) required that institutions have a mechanism in place to evaluate research that is potentially DURC. The Boston University (“BU”) policy was recently reviewed by BU’s Office of General Council and the suggested revisions were approved by the IBC. BU’s policy on DURC is available at the IBC policy page.

Biosafety Manual Updated

BU’s Biosafety Manual is reviewed by the IBC on an annual basis. University stakeholders and IBC members participated in this annual review. The complete updated Biosafety Manual can be downloaded from the IBC policy page. All table of contents and website addresses are now hyperlinked and can be accessed by just one click in this large 189 page document.

IBC Member Training Sessions:

The IBC organized two training sessions during this past quarter to educate committee members on research areas with increased biosafety concerns. They included: 1) Herpes B virus concern in NHP research: Exposure Management; and 2) Biological Waste Management Guidelines. The Herpes B virus training was presented in response to the increase in research protocols involving potentially infectious non- human primate materials being reviewed by the IBC. If interested, one may request the PowerPoint presentation slides for this talk from the IBC office.

Programmatic Operational Indicator

Monthly workload and performance of the IBC are now available for public view. This website can be accessed at https://www.bu.edu/research/administration/research- support-offices/strategic-operational-indicators/.

Tips

• If you are taking initial Lab Safety Training online, you must also complete the BSL1 and BSL2 training module. All individuals associated with any sort of IBC protocol will always need BSL1/BSL2 training (and Bloodborne Pathogen training if working with primary human samples). For training renewal, take the online ‘Annual Refresher Training’.
• rDNA/IBC policy training is only required for Principal Investigators (“PIs”). It is not a test for knowledge on rDNA work, it is to ensure awareness of the NIH policy. PIs must complete this training annually.
• PIs may delegate the role of ‘Primary User’ on his/her RIMS account, which will enable the delegate to edit the protocol. This can be done using the ‘RIMS access’ link on the bottom left of the RIMS login-page. However, only the PI is allowed to submit the protocol to the IBC office.
• When you are re-submitting a 3-year or annual renewal application in response to reviewer’s question, it is better to wait until the application has been approved before adding a new person. Adding a new person during the review may substantially delay the approval of your protocol if the new person does not have lab safety and ROHP clearance. The 3-year and Annual renewals need to be approved before the protocol expiration date. Addition of a new person can be done by submitting an amendment after the renewal has been approved.