Colorado State Hosts 2004 Biosafety and Biosecurity Training Course July 26-30

Note to Editors: To attend training course sessions or arrange interviews with course instructors, contact Brad Bohlander at (970) 491-1545.

Colorado State University is welcoming biosafety and biosecurity professionals from throughout the nation to the Biosafety and Biosecurity in Clinics and Research Laboratories Training Course July 26-30. The course is designed to promote safety and expertise in the research and clinical workplace when dealing with biosecurity issues.

"Colorado State’s role as a national and international leader in infectious disease and related research makes this an ideal setting to teach proper biosecurity and biosafety techniques," said Robert Ellis, Colorado State Biosafety Officer, professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology and primary instructor for the course. "Our combination of world-renowned professionals and world-class facilities offer a wonderful educational opportunity for researchers and biosafety and biosecurity professionals."

The training course will cover a variety of biosafety and biosecurity areas. The first two days will focus on basic biosafety, with topics including:

– risk assessment;

– containment;

– understanding and applying federal guidelines;

– administrative duties of the biosafety officer;

– biosafety committee structure and function; and

– compliance with regulations and guidelines.

The remainder of the course will include sessions focused on:

– veterinary hospital and clinic biosecurity (infection control) and agricultural premises biosecurity;

– The classification, potential hazards, function and proper use of biosafety cabinets in a modern research laboratory; and

– research animal facilities and containment issues.

Colorado State was recently awarded $17 million by the National Institutes of Health to construct a regional infectious diseases research center. The grant is funding a 33,850-square-foot Regional Biocontainment Laboratory for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research. The new lab will complement the university’s existing Bioenvironmental Hazards Research Building and its Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory, as well as similar research already underway at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s infectious disease program.

Colorado State is also home to the Rocky Mountain Institute for Biosecurity Research, an initiative that partners with eight Rocky Mountain land grant universities where research and outreach capabilities are focused on protecting the nation’s human and economically important plant and animal resources. The Center for Crop Biosecurity is a branch of the institute that will provide early detection, rapid diagnosis and response to potential acts of bioterrorism against plants and crops in the Rocky Mountain area and adjacent high plains.

Among his long list of credentials, Ellis is a certified Biological Safety Professional and is a member of the American Biological Safety Association’s Training and Education committee.

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