Biological Safety

The mission of the Biological Safety Program at the University of Kentucky is to ensure the safe use of recombinant and/or synthetic nucleic acids, infectious agents, and potentially infectious materials in research and teaching activities so as to eliminate or reduce the potential exposure to personnel or the environment. Rather than ensuring mere compliance with the federal regulations, guidelines, and University policies, UK’s Biological Safety Program strives to adhere to the highest ethical standards in the protection of personnel and the environment from potential exposure to potentially biohazardous materials.  In service of this mission, the Biological Safety Program endeavors to:

• Continue to inform researchers about the application of the federal regulations in an effort to keep researchers current with evolving standards.

• Educate faculty, staff, and students who conduct research with recombinant and/or synthetic nucleic acids, infectious agents and potentially infectious materials of their responsibilities to protect themselves and the environment from potential exposures.

• Develop new approaches that better serve the overarching mission of the University and assess the overall effectiveness of the program.

NIH recently announced it was beginning a year-long process to modernize and strengthen the oversight of biosafety.  Key to this effort is obtaining feedback from individuals on what they think should be included in a 21^st century biosafety policy. NIH is currently launching an intensive community engagement program that will include six regional listening sessions and smaller engagements with individuals throughout the United States.  We want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to make their voice heard on this important issue.  Great ideas sometimes come up at unexpected times.  This is why NIH has established a portal where anyone can come and share their thoughts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  While comments submitted through the portal can relate to any aspect of biosafety oversight, NIH is particularly interested in hearing individual opinions regarding:

• Appropriate scope for NIH’s biosafety policy
• Types of research that may require less local or NIH oversight based on accrued safety data or due to oversight by other federal authorities
• Other comments on NIH’s biosafety oversight

You can submit your thoughts and comments by clicking HERE. Commenters can include their names and email addresses, or they may be submitted anonymously.