Past EBSA courses

A 2,5 hour online course (including a break and question session)

Instructor: Dominic Muyldermans

Description: The principles of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) were first recognised under the Convention on Biological Diversity, refined in the Nagoya Protocol and are further implemented in national ABS laws. In EU an additional compliance regulation applies.

Instructors: Adam Stevenson and Wendy Shell

Aim: To be aware of human factors and how to take account of such in a laboratory or in vivo containment facility.

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.

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.

• 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 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.

Working with an animal model of infection means introducing an additional risk into the infection chain.  

Not only the animals need to be handled appropriately to reduce a potential risk to the scientist, the equipment also plays a major role in minimising risk during individual infection experiments. 

Infection models with obligate pathogenic human germs must be treated carefully and calmly. The 3Rs of laboratory animal science are not only a guarantee for ethically sound experiments, but also serve the safety of the researchers. 

This course is rated as advanced. Therefore basic knowledge of Biosafety is a prerequisite as well as initial knowledge in working with animals.