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Longwood University is committed to safe and responsible biological research practices. Longwood’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) reviews potentially biohazardous research to ensure biological research is conducted according to university and federal guidelines. The committee consists of Longwood faculty, community representatives, and a representative from the Longwood Department of Environmental Health and Safety.

Biological hazards are biological substances that could pose a threat to people and other organisms. Biological hazards include:

• Human, animal, and plant pathogens (bacteria, bacterial toxins, parasites, fungi, viruses, rickettsia, prions, protozoans, genetically modified specimens)
• Select agents or toxins
• All human or nonhuman primate blood, blood products, unfixed clinical tissues, and body fluids
• Cultured cells and potentially infectious agents these cells may contain
• Infected animals, their tissues and bodily fluids
• Recombinant or synthetic nucleic acid molecules and organisms or cell lines carrying such molecules

Faculty conducting and overseeing research involving biological hazards must register the research with the Institutional Biosafety Committee and acquire appropriate training.