What is an Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC)

An Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) is required at institutions that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to review research involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules, in accordance with the NIH Guidelines for Research Involving Recombinant or Synthetic Nucleic Acid Molecules. At the University of Utah, the IBC also has the responsibility of reviewing a variety of experimentation that involves biological materials, such as risk group 2 or higher pathogens, and other potentially hazardous agents, including acute biological toxins, human blood, tissues and cell lines. The IBC works in conjunction with the Biosafety Office in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety to develop procedures to facilitate the safe conduct of biological research at the University of Utah.