Institutional Biosafety Committee

Institutional Biosafety Committee

The University of Richmond Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) provides guidance to faculty, staff, and students in their research and classroom environments on projects that involve biological materials and potential hazards.

Established by the Provost office in 2019, the IBC's key responsibilities include:

Compliance

The IBC is required by the National Institutes of Health to ensure that biological research, especially research focused on recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules, follows federal regulations. This occurs through the registration and review of laboratory protocols.

Education

The IBC provides training materials to investigators on the safety implications of biological research including containment levels for biohazardous agents, organisms, plants, and animals. The IBC follows guidelines and recommendations set out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories.