IACUC Membership Updates
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Benedek Erdos in his new role as IACUC Chair beginning July 1st! Dr. Erdos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and has been with the committee since 2015. We look forward to working with Dr. Erdos in his new capacity as Chair.
A special thank you to Dr. Margaret Vizzard who has been serving as the interim IACUC Chair since 2020. Margaret has been an integral member of the committee since 1996, serving in member and the Chair roles previously. She will continue as a regular voting member and will Chair the IACUC Policies and Procedures Subcommittee. We are extremely grateful for her dedication and service to this committee as well as the support she provides to our research community. Please join us in thanking Margaret for her many years of continued service.
Dr. Tom Jetton is the new Associate Chair for the committee. Dr. Jetton is a professor in the Department of Medicine – Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism and has been on the IACUC since 2015.
The IACUC says goodbye and thank you to Dr. Jan Bunn who has served as the committee’s biostatistician since 2016. Jan has been an important part of the protocol and amendment review process, evaluating the statistical justification section of protocols and working with investigators determine the number of animals necessary for their projects. As we say goodbye to Jan, we welcome Joan Skelly who will take her place on the committee. Joan comes to us with a wealth of knowledge, and we are looking forward to working with her.
Staff News
The RPO is undergoing an internal redesign process. This process was begun to address recent and future internal and regulatory mandates in our industry. New items such as oversight of controlled substances and increased pressure for monitoring research activities requires a different infrastructure to remain current, responsive and maintain compliance across the University. RPO is happy to announce the following promotions for RPO staff:
Aubrie Clas, Director IACUC/IBC/CSC. Aubrie has been with RPO for 6 years and managed the OACM Facility for many years. This has enabled her to establish strong relationships with many of you. Her knowledge of ¶¶Òõ̽̽’s research culture along with her positive work ethic will take these Committees to the next level.
Abbey Dattilio, Monitoring and Compliance Specialist. Abbey has been at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ for 21 years, first as a lab animal technician and more recently an IACUC analyst. She will serve as a pre- and post-approval liaison regarding best practices, conduct quality/regulatory visits to research labs and develop educational resources that support researchers. This new position provides a supportive bridge between the researcher and IACUC to assist in ensuring research remains compliant with the approved protocols, regulations and local ¶¶Òõ̽̽ requirements.
Please join us in congratulating these individuals. RPO will be recruiting over the summer for a new IACUC Regulatory Analyst position, please stay tuned.
AAALAC Accreditation
It has come to the IACUC’s attention that guidance was lacking regarding appropriate biosafety handling for researchers who use human cells in animals. To that end the ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Biosafety Committee, working with the Biosafety Officer, reviewed the situation and developed new policy in this regard.
If your research requires work with human materials and/or cell lines in animals, please review ¶¶Òõ̽̽’s Policy on Research Involving Human Materials and Cell Lines as it may benefit you.
Librarian Assisted Literature Search
Literature searches for alternatives are an important way researchers demonstrate compliance with regulations to consider alternatives to painful/distressful procedures. It has been noted during USDA inspections and our recent AAALAC site visit that searches for alternatives could be stronger. To that end, the IACUC is excited to announce that we have been working with librarians from the Dana Medical Library to develop a mechanism for researchers to request literature search consultations for their D&E level protocols. We are in the process of creating guidance and search strategy templates and will share these materials with you soon.
¶¶Òõ̽̽Click Reminders
Triennial Reviews
It is a federal requirement that a complete (de novo) review of a previously approved protocol be conducted every three years to receive continued approval of ongoing activities. While these reviews are typically done using the designated member review process and do not need to go to a full meeting regardless of pain level, the reviews are in-depth and can take time. For this reason, it is important that triennial reviews be submitted to the IACUC with ample time to allow for review to avoid a lapse in approval.
Protocols are editable at the time of submission so that the protocol, including the literature search section (a requirement for all D&E level protocols), can be updated.
Occupational Health and Safety
The Animal Handler Occupational Health and Safety Program Evaluations moved completely to online systems last year. Risk Management and Safety (RMS) no longer accepts the paper or Word document forms. There are two avenues for submission of the Animal Handler form, one for employees and one for students.
If you are an EMPLOYEE:
Employees will receive email clearances from Champlain Medical. RMS is cc’d on the clearance notices.
If you are a STUDENT:
The Animal Handler Occupational Health Questionnaire can be accessed by following these instructions. Students must check for clearance status on their ¶¶Òõ̽̽ MyWellbeing accounts. Once a student receives clearance, they must forward it to ohealth@uvm.edu so that RMS can log the clearance in the ¶¶Òõ̽̽Click system.
And just a reminder that key personnel changes cannot be approved until personnel have received their occupational health medical clearance. Because Click only allows one amendment at a time, it behooves the PI to hold key personnel change submissions until after new personnel have been cleared. Assuming the person has also completed required CITI training, this process will allow those key personnel changes to be expedited.