News

The French society of microbiology (SFM) will celebrate its 80th anniversary during the 13th national congress held from Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th October 2017 in Paris at the "Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie".

One theme will be dedicated to biosafety and biosecurity.

Don't hesitate to submit your abstract for poster or oral communication (deadline: 30th June 2017)

Click here to access to the preliminary program

Swiss Academies Report 12 (3)

Misuse potential and biosecurity in life sciences research 

A discussion basis for scientists on how to address the dual use dilemma of biological research

https://naturalsciences.ch/service/publications/89034-misuse-potential-and-biosecurity-in-life-sciences-research

 The report is availalbe in English, French, German and Italian (you can switch to different languages at the top right corner).

This year's EBSA conference will take place in Madrid, Spain between April 25^th and 28^th. For further information please see the following link.

The safe handling of microorganisms in the teaching laboratory is a top priority. However, in the absence of a standard set of biosafety guidelines tailored to the teaching laboratory, individual educators and institutions have been left to develop their own plans. This has resulted in a lack of consistency, and differing levels of biosafety practices across institutions. Influenced by the lack of clear guidelines and a recent outbreak of Salmonella infections that was traced backed to teaching laboratory exposures, the Education Board of the American Society for Microbiology charged a task force to develop a uniform set of biosafety guidelines for working with microorganisms in the teaching laboratory. These guidelines represent best practices for safely handling microbes, based on the safety requirements found in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC)'s Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL). Guidelines for safely handling microbes at both biosafety level 1 (BSL1) and at biosafety level 2 (BSL2) were developed. The guidelines are brief by design for ease of use and provide educators with a clear and consistent way to safely work with microorganisms in the teaching laboratory.

Link

The symposium will take place on Friday, February 3rd 2017, 14:00 - 16:00, Campus Irchel, University of Zurich.

More information may be found here.

Federal officials today released a plan to help U.S. agencies decide whether to fund controversial studies that make viruses more dangerous. The guidance may finally bring an end to a moratorium that has kept a handful of experiments funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on hold for more than 2 years.

The policy may be found here.

Hazardous substance information system of the German Social Accident Insurance

The GESTIS Biological Agents Database contains information for safe activities with biological agents at the workplace, e.g. the required technical, organisational and personal protection measures in the case of specific activities in laboratories, biotechnology and the husbandry of laboratory animals. It also supplies information on important properties of the various biological agents, e.g. their occurrence and pathogenic properties. It contains data on about 15000 biological agents. Information on activities in other sectors where biological agents may possibly occur (so-called "non-specific" activities, e.g. litter service or waste water industry) can be found in non-specific activity data sheets.

Link

A new guidance document on the chemical inactivation of organisms in liquids may be found on the following website (only German).

French authorities are organising a brainstorming event focusing on biosafety and biosecurity on November 24^th 2017. The event is free of charge and open to all. More information may be obtained via the following link.

The 32^nd International Congress on Occupational Health will take place in Dublin, Ireland, between April 29^th and May 4^th 2018. More information may be found under the following link: http://icoh2018.org/wp/