The UCLA Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) is the local review body responsible for oversight of all research activities – including teaching laboratories – involving the use of hazardous biological material and recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids, as required and outlined in the NIH Guidelines and the BMBL. In order to maintain safe conditions and regulatory compliance in research and teaching areas, work done with any of the following biological materials must be registered with the IBC for review and authorization:

• Recombinant/synthetic nucleic acid molecules, as covered by the NIH Guidelines
• Infectious agents (viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions, etc.)  that can cause disease in healthy humans and/or significant environmental or agricultural impacts, as covered by the BMBL
• Select agents and select toxins, as covered by the CDC DSAT regulations (See http://www.selectagents.gov/SelectAgentsandToxinsList.html)
• Human materials (including all fluids, tissues, excretions, secretions, or cell lines), as covered by the Cal/OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard
• Nonhuman primate materials (including live animals, all fluids, tissues, excretions, secretions, or cell lines), as covered by the BMBL and Cal/OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard
• Genetically-modified animals and whole plants, as covered by the NIH Guidelines
• Certain animals or animal specimens known to be reservoirs/vectors of zoonotic diseases. EXEMPT: Most animals from UCLA DLAM approved vendors. (See http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet/guides/vetzooman.htm for list of zoonotic animals)

It is the responsibility of the PI to obtain IBC approval for the safe handling, transport, use, and disposal of hazardous biological materials and recombinant/synthetic nucleic acids when these materials are used in research and teaching. All Biological Use Authorization (BUA) applications for IBC review are submitted using SafetyNet. All types of submissions, from benchwork to human gene transfer studies, use the same application smartform. Users access SafetyNet using their UCLA single sign-on credentials and should contact the IBC administrative team if access is not enabled.

• Phone: 310-794-0262
• Email: ibc@research.ucla.edu
• Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2-5 PM, CHS 17-132A

Quick reference guides and training materials are available here.