Tag: DURC

  • Environmental Health and Safety Office Updates (February 2025)

    Authors: Kalpana Rengarajan, PhD & Rashida Moore DVM DCLAM The Environmental Health and Safety Office (EHSO) is working on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institute of Health (NIH) driven initiatives including downgrading of biocontainment requirements for SARS CoV-2 work and new guidelines for Dual Use Research of Concern.  Also included is…

  • Dual Use of Research Concern

    By Scott Thomaston, Assistant Vice President, EHSO Some biological agents used in research are considered to be Dual Use of Research Concern (DURC) because of their ability to be used both for benevolent purposes or modified in such a way as to present risk to public health and safety, agriculture, animals, and the environment. This…

  • Are You Aware of DURC?

    The United States Government (USG) issued in March 2012 the Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) Policy, and subsequently, the Policy for Institutional Oversight of Life Sciences DURC. The USG defines DURC as: …life sciences research that, based on current understanding, can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technology that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, plants, animals,…