Upcoming EBSA courses

Even though national and international regulations provide a framework on how to work safely with a certain pathogen or hazard, specific risk assessments are indispensable to identify appropriate safety measures to ensure that the risk associated with working with biological agents is on an acceptable level. This course will set out the principles of a risk assessment process, addressing the definition of key steps, risk evaluation and identification of high-risk laboratory procedures or selection of risk control measures.

Sadly, accidents will always happen. They can be prevented, but only if we take care to understand how and why they happen. Their impact can be reduced, but only if we take time to prepare. Gaining that understanding and having a plan are key safety processes. 

CWA Refernce:

C.2.2.1 Laboratory animal experiments - small animals (rodents)
C.2.2.2 Laboratory animal experiments - large animals (cattle, swine etc.)

The application of appropriate decontamination methods is the key element in reducing surface contamination in the laboratory to prevent laboratory-acquired infections and cross contamination in the laboratory.

• Essential elements of and metholodolgies to perform risk assessment
• Assessing the risk of biological materials (microorganisms, cells, tissues)
• Evaluating the risk of procedures/activities
• Defining measures to control/minimize the risk (containment, GMT, PPE, training)

The role of a biosafety professional (BSP) within an institution is a challenging position. In addition, a BSP very often plays the interface between different activities within a facility including animal handling, engineering, maintenance and cleaning.

There are a variety of investigational human and veterinary medicinal products consisting of or containing GMOs. GMOs for human medicines may include the following: human cells modified ex vivo; vaccines; recombinant virus-based vectors, including those containing genome editing nucleic acid sequences (which may also be delivered non-virally) and bacterial vectors.Medicinal products based onmRNA are on the rise. One need to define which constructs are still GMOs or not, which constructs are less or more hazardous than the wildtype virus, they are derived from, and which might serve as agent to harm others. How are people and the environment protected when they are widely used, also outside controlled laboratory settings. There is guidance and regulation. Which ones to apply is the one hundred Euroquestions.