Security in Biological Research: Current Oversight of High-Containment Laboratories
Date: 12 March 2009 - 12 March 2009
Location:
Senate Dirksen, room 430
Washington, DC
Sponsored by:
AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy
Center for Biosecurity of UPMC
Security in Biological Research: Current Oversight of High-Containment Laboratories
Date: March 12, 2009
Time: 9:30am-11:00am
Location: Senate Dirksen, room 430
This event is open to the public.
This session will provide an on-the-ground perspective about the oversight of high containment biological laboratories. Speakers from a variety of backgrounds—from academia, government contracting, and the pharmaceutical industry—will describe their experiences with federal regulations of laboratories, pathogens, and scientific personnel.
The regulation of biological laboratories has become a prominent issue for Congress in recent years, with controversies over biosafety lapses at Texas A&M University in 2006, prosecutions for mishandling pathogens under the PATRIOT Act, and public protests surrounding new laboratory sitings. Following the FBI's assertions that Bruce Ivins, an army scientist, was responsible for the anthrax attacks of 2001, additional Congressional inquiries have touched on personnel reliability and the oversight of scientists working with dangerous pathogens. In their recent report, World at Risk, The Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism also focused on laboratory biosecurity. During his last week in office, President Bush issued an executive order (January 9, 2009) mandating a review of all laws and regulations pertaining to select agents, high containment laboratories, and personnel assurance among other relevant topics. The Select Agent Program and Biosafety Improvement Act, was introduced in the House (H.R.1225) and Senate (S.485) on February 26, 2009.
Recently, Senators Collins and Lieberman have indicated their interest in legislating laboratory biosecurity, including oversight mechanisms for high containment laboratories, access to dangerous biological agents and/or high containment laboratories, and personnel assurance.
Please join us to discuss these important issues at a public educational briefing hosted by the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy and the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC.
Speakers:
Michael Ehret
Thomas Sack, Ph.D.
Midwest Research Institute
Michael St.Clair
The Ohio State University
Michael Pentella, Ph.D.
University of Iowa
AAAS is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. Since it was founded in 1848, AAAS has been dedicated to the advancement of scientific knowledge for the good of society as a whole. www.aaas.org
The Center for Biosecurity is an independent, nonprofit organization of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The Center works to affect policy and practice in ways that lessen the illness, death, and civil disruption that would follow large-scale epidemics, whether they occur naturally or result from the use of a biological weapon.
Related Links:
MRI Biocontainment Laboratory Overview
OSU Security of High-Containment Laboratories
Public Health High-Containment Laboratories
Summary: Security in Biological Research: Current Oversight of High-Containment Laboratories
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