New Resource for Recognizing and Alleviating Pain in Animals

A new online resource available from the National Academy of Sciences to help those who care for and use laboratory animals, farm animals, and pets to prevent, recognize, and alleviate pain in different types of animals is available at http://nas.edu/pain.

New Animal Model Resource

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) reports that scientists who work with animal models will soon be able to use a new web site and database designed to increase research efficiency, improve collaboration and quickly find the best animal models for their research studies.

The Linking Animal Models to Human Disease Initiative (LAMHDI) will integrate data and information about animal models and make them available to researchers throughout the world.

Go to http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/comparative_medicine/linking_animal_models_to_human_disease.asp for more information

Welcome to new IRB members; thank you to those leaving.

The IRB will welcome three new members this fall. New members include:

John Borrero, Assistant Professor, Psychology

Leigh Dalton, graduate student, Public Policy

Kelley Gurley, graduate student, Human-Centered Computing

The IRB also wishes to thank student members Gina Fitzmaurice and Satarupa Joardar for their service this past academic year.

The updated roster of Board membership is available on the IRB website.

The UMBC IACUC meets four (4) times a year. In order to allow for sufficient review and placement on the meeting agenda, new or renewal protocol applications must be submitted at least 45 days before the scheduled meeting. Applications not received by that deadline date will be automatically placed on the agenda for the next scheduled meeting. The next meetings are listed below. Animal research applications must be submitted to HARPO no later than 45 days before the scheduled meetings.

- October, 2009 - August 15, 2009
- December, 2009 - November 15, 2009
- April, 2010 - February 15, 2010
- July 2010 - May 15, 2010

Application forms and instructions may be found on the IACUC protocol development page.

Reminder - IRB meeting dates for 2009 - 2010

The IRB meets every sixty (60) days during the academic year to review human subjects protocols. Full committee reviews of protocols are performed at each of the scheduled meetings; exempt and expedited review applications may be submitted at any time.

The meeting schedule for the 2009-10 academic year is as follows:

- October 05, 2009; Full Board Review applications due by September 07, 2009
- December 07, 2009; Full Board Review applications due by November 02, 2009
- February 01, 2010; Full Board Review applications due by January 04, 2010
- April 05, 2010; Full Board Review applications due by March 02, 2010
- June 07, 2010; Full Board Review applications due by May 03, 2010

Please visit the IRB's protocol development page for further information.

Updated application forms and documents on the HARPO web site

Please use the most up to date forms and applications when submitting for compliance committee review and approval. Using older forms may delay the processing of your application (and causing minor headaches for the HARPO staff!).

Click on these links (and add to your shortcuts) to get to the most up to date versions:

IRB - http://www.umbc.edu/research/Resources/irb_forms.htm

IACUC - http://www.umbc.edu/research/Resources/iacuc_forms.htm

Biosafety - http://www.umbc.edu/research/HARPO/Biosafety/Biosafetyforms.html

Protocol modifications

As you may well know, any proposed change to an already approved human subject research protocol, measures, or informed consent document during the period of IRB approval must be submitted to the IRB for review and approval before that change commences.

We in HARPO, on the behalf of our reviewers, ask that you highlight any proposed wording changes in the application form, consent documents, recruitment fliers, etc. in yellow and underline and attach those changed documents to this form. This will assist the reviewer with understanding the changes investigators are planning to make.

See http://www.umbc.edu/research/HARPO/IRB/IRBpostapproval.html#modifications for more information.