Articles

CLICK HERE to register

Course Title:  Case Studies in Biocontainment Emergencies

Instructor:      David Harbourt, PhD, CBSP, SM(NRCM), RBP

  USAMRIID

 

Course Length:  4 hours

 

Course Time:  1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

 

Description:

 

It is important that biosafety professionals understand how to respond to emergency response situations that could affect operations in containment laboratories.  Emergency situations can affect a wide range of facility operations (electrical failures, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), etc.) and often occur with little or no warning to the biosafety professionals, scientific staff or support staff.  Biosafety professionals need to be able to thoroughly understand how their facility and personnel function during normal operations to aid in preparation for significant events.  In addition to understanding their facility and personnel, it is also vital for biosafety professionals to know who the key decision makers are in their facility for situations that could potentially result in short term and/or long term disruptions to operations.  By understanding how their facility is intended to function, who the key decision makers are and the critical information that is needed for the key decision makers during emergency scenarios, biosafety professionals can help ensure that they are prepared when situations arise in the future.

This course will focus solely on applying knowledge of emergency response, HVAC, plumbing, electrical issues and potential occupational exposures to select case studies.  The expectation for this course is that the topics in the case studies have either been covered from attending the “How to Respond to Emergency Scenarios in Biocontainment Laboratories” course or in the individuals’ own professional experience.   During the class, individuals will evaluate 25 total different case studies covering each of these areas.  Individuals taking this course will work through a subset of case studies and proper courses of action will be developed through collaboration and group discussion.

Key Objectives:

1.     Be able to describe the decision making process during an emergency response situation.

2.     Understand who the key decision makers are in your facility and who can authorize decisions that will impact mission operations.

3.     Be able to make timely decisions about complex issues facing biocontainment laboratory operations and personnel

4.     Identify lessons learned from case studies and apply them to their own institute emergencies.

Course Title:  Personnel Security in Laboratory Biosecurity Programs

Instructor:      Ben Perman, PhD // US Coast Guard

                       Lindsey Odell, PhD // Defense Threat Reduction Agency

 

Course Length:  8 hours

 

Course Time:  8:00 am – 5:00 pm

 

Description:

 

Personnel security is comprised of security measures focused on people and behaviors rather than typical physical barrier approaches. Personnel security can be thought of as  the “administrative controls” in any advanced security program. This course will teach administration, management, and researchers the basic principles of threat assessment and introduce students to the role of comprehensive personnel security in a laboratory biosecurity program. The course will give students a basic tool-kit that will allow them to: (1) implement successful comprehensive insider threat mitigation strategies using personnel security approaches at their home institutes and, (2) convey concepts in personnel security to their colleagues. Students will be presented with relevant case studies in order to learn about relevant threats in the biomedical and health sectors. Students will learn about all aspects of personnel security including: suitability, reliability, peer and self reporting strategies, threat assessment, OPSEC, INFOSEC, and an introduction to elicitation, manipulation and surveillance awareness. These concepts will be put in to practice in interactive, live role-playing scenarios that include interview tactics, deception detection, elicitation, and surveillance detection.  Regulatory issues relevant to implementation of personnel security management programs, in particular changes to the Select Agent Regulations pertaining to Tier 1 agents, will also be discussed.

 

Course Title:       Engineering for the Biosafety Professional, Part 1

Instructors:          Juan Osorio, IE // World BioHazTec

                             Ted Traum, PE, DGCP, CCP // World BioHazTec

 

Course Length:   8 hours

 

Course Time:      8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

 

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this workshop. The course is designed for biosafety professionals familiar with biological containment level 3 requirements.

 

Description:

Proactive biosafety professionals need to be involved and knowledgeable in the operation, maintenance and certification of their containment facilities and building systems. Frequently, the biosafety professional is called upon to participate in the planning, design, and validation of a new biocontainment laboratory or renovation of an existing facility. The biosafety professional’s training and experience is usually limited to the sciences and they often lack the knowledge of basic engineering principals. This course is intended to fill the gap by providing basic engineering principles that are useful in the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of a BSL-3 or high containment facility. For the biosafety professional to participate in these activities, s/he needs a foundation of engineering fundamentals, develop skills to ask questions in engineering terms, and the confidence to question the answers.

 

Following this introductory course, participants will be able to:

 

  • Discuss engineering principles and the design and construction process of a BSL-3 lab.
  • Identify roles and responsibilities in the design process.
  • Identify the phases and strategies of BSL-3 laboratory design.
  • Define HVAC containment boundaries.
  • Determine room heat loads and ventilation rates.
  • Interpret design drawings.
  • Evaluate engineering solutions.
  • Describe HEPA filtration.
  • Discuss concepts in directional airflow and room pressure differentials.
  • Identify HVAC components (i.e., isolation valves, control valves, fast acting actuators, etc.).
  • Identify the elements of a quality assurance program.

 

There will be step-by-step slide presentations on planning, design (with a checklist), construction oversight, commissioning, certification/validation/ANSI Z9.14 Standard, and maintenance and operation. Printed course materials will be provided to you at sign-in. Some exercises require calculations. It is recommended to bring a calculator or a phone with a calculator feature.

 

A certificate of completion will be awarded to participants completing the post-course assessment with a minimum score of 80%.

 

If you have questions or require reasonable accommodations, please contact Tracey Ann Brown at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 512-619-6302.