Viral comments (41): AEBioS 2018, congress of biosafety in Salamanca
At the end of next week, from 3 to 5 of October, AEBioS, the Spanish Association of Biosafety will hold its 4th congress, this time in Salamanca. For more information you can access its website.
In this congress, as previous editions, IRTA CReSA will be represented by Xavier Abad, now Head of Biocontainment Unit of IRTA-CReSA, Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal, and by David Solanes, Head of the Platform of Infrastructures of IRTA’s Animal Production Area.
This time, the congress chose to include a series of seminars or workshops just before or during the congress, on issues related to biosafety but that need a more practical approach. It is the first time in the short life of AEBioS that such satellites have been held with the congress and its success will be evaluated at the end. So, we could attend seminars as “Personal Protective Equipment: How to choose and use” by Jorge Pérez Bruzón and “Autoclaves, how to use and perform cycle validation”, by Elena Lorenzo, or “Biological Safety Cabinets: choice, use and disinfection” by Javier García Palomo, from University of Salamanca or “GMP Validation of surfaces” by Miriam López.
The congress also includes several plenary sessions, with oral communications which address issues with clear links with biosafety, but in some cases moving in a grey frontier as it would be “Genetic edition and bioetics” by Josep Santaló from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, or “Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC): Gain of Function experiments (GOF), ¿a never ending discussion?” by the writer of this post, Xavier Abad, from IRTA-CReSA but also others of great concern as “Zoonoses transmitted by ticks” by Nerea García (it is not worthy to remember the mortal infection by Crimea Congo two months ago) o the round table “Presentation of the 171400 norm”, chaired by the current AEBioS president, Iñaki Echeverría from Bask Country University (UPV/EHU).
There will be also other main communication on recurrent items as “Bioinsecurity” by Gonzalo Pascual, from CISA Valdeolmos or “Operating Procedures in BSL23 facilities” by Jacinto Cantero from University of Jaén, or “Solutions of design an commissioning for BSL3 laboratories” by Luis Linares.
Finally, a surely very interesting communication about “Registering of disinfectants” by J. A. Serón, from MATACHANA, as there is some legal back box associated with cumbersome burocracy which cause that the most of currently used disinfectants, although effective, are been used without all the documentation approved.
A bi-yearly congress where around 150 professionals from research centres, administration, companies devoted to biocontainment, biosafety, the manufacturing and distribution of personal protective equipment, etc. share experiences, new developments and troubleshooting, etc. always in an environment of frank collaboration as your problem could become my problem, or the trouble of all of us.
But this, this is another story.
