Conference to focus on animal research regulation

James Turpen, Ph.D.

In the 1960s, Life magazine published a story about animals being subjected to horrible living conditions by dealers looking to sell the creatures for research.

A huge public outcry followed as did a series of federal regulations now known as the Animal Welfare Act.

Today any university that conducts research using animals is required to have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or IACUC.

The care and use of animals in laboratory experiments is the focus of a one-day conference being held June 26 at UNMC hosted by the university’s IACUC.

The conference, which is being supported by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Nebraska-INBRE program, is free and open to any investigator, their staff and graduate students interested in learning more about the regulations that govern their work involving the use of animals.

“Scientists involved in animal research have no desire to harm animals,” said James Turpen, Ph.D., executive chairman of the IACUC at UNMC. “Data from unhealthy or stressed animal is unreliable.”

The goal of the conference is to give researchers a better understanding of how the IACUC functions, the role of the committee and its mission, Dr. Turpen said.

“Ultimately our goal is to not only protect the university but our researchers as well,” Dr. Turpen said.

For both researchers and institutions as a whole, a failure to meet adequate standards for animal research can be disasterous.

This point was illustrated last year when a mistake made by the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to shut down nearly 300 research projects until the proper IACUC reviews could be done.

“It’s important that people understand the role the IACUC plays in helping maintain compliance with the regulations established by the federal government governing the use of animals in research,” Dr. Turpen said.

The UNMC conference will be held in the Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater and will include presentations by Pat Brown, Ph.D., D.V.M., director of the NIH Office of Animal Laboratory Welfare, and Ruth Baker, D.V.M., a veterinary medical officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Monte Matthews, director of the University of Oregon Office of Veterinary Services and Animal Care and creator of IACUC 101 course, will present a session on protocol review, as well as facilitate several panel discussions.

The conference is free and participants must register by June 12.

To register go to the IACUC Web site and click on the registration form.