Biosafety & Biosecurity

Biosafety is a two way path - to be 'biosafe' implies creating a safe working environment for all personnel and ensuring that the work being done does not impact the environment. Biohazardous materials include any organism that can cause disease in humans, or cause significant environmental or agricultural impact, such as:

• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Parasites
• Prions and Prion-like Proteins
• Fungi
• Human or primate tissues, fluids, cells, or cell cultures/lines that are known to or are likely to contain infectious organisms
• Human or animal tissues, fluids, cells, or cell cultures/lines that have been exposed to infectious organisms
• Animals known to be reservoirs of zoonotic diseases

The Biosafety program oversees the use of recombinant and synthetic nucleic acid molecules. This includes:

• Recombinant and synthetic nucleic acid molecules 
• Transgenic animals
• Transgenic plants
• Human gene transfer or studies using recombinant DNA
• Synthetic nucleic acid molecules

You may also be directed to Biosafety if your Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care (APLAC) protocol indicates a need for APB review.