CDI Hosts Annual MABSA Meeting on Biosafety

The Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI), hosted the 34th annual symposium of the Mid-Atlantic Biosafety Symposium on June 16.

The meeting consisted of biosafety experts from along the Eastern Seaboard comparing experiences and best practices in the era of COVID-19.

“Promoting advances and best practices for biosafety and biosecurity is critical for the infectious diseases and public health research communities. This is an important professional gathering for world-class institutions, and we were glad to be the host this year,” said David Perlin, Ph.D, the chief scientific officer and senior vice president of the CDI.

The meeting featured: an update from the ABSA Past President, Melissa Morland, RBP, CBSP; best practices presentations from representatives from the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania; a presentation from a microbiologist from the New Jersey Department of Health on vector-borne disease threats; and also a talk by the CDI’s Sean Fitzgerald on “Translating Biosafety in the Clinical Realm.”

“The challenge is in establishing and fostering the culture of safety,” said Fitzgerald, MPH, RBP, the manager of Biological Safety and Environmental Health and Safety for Hackensack Meridian Health. “But the MABSA members are consummate professionals, and this meeting is always a valuable occasion.”

MABSA members also include Rutgers University, Temple University, Princeton University, Yale University, and New York University, among others.

The MABSA’s 34th annual symposium was the first to be held as a “hybrid” event, featuring in-person and virtual attendance.According to the organization’s website, “the Mid-Atlantic Biological Safety Association (MABSA) is a not-for-profit, multi-disciplinary professional organization founded in 1990 for the purpose of promoting the principles of Biological Safety.

“MABSA was founded to provide a professional forum for dissemination of information between individuals in this and related fields; to inform the public about the value of biological agents in research and health care, and the role they play in disease as well as in the improvement of the quality of life; to identify new biologically hazardous agents and to determine guidelines for their safe use; to promote the recognition of Biosafety as a scientific discipline.

“MABSA provides a regional forum for members to interact and share information on biosafety subjects, such as new guidelines or current concerns with newly recognized agents and with new uses for new agents.”