VPRS 19286 Institutional Biosafety Committee, Project Files

This series comprises proposal files of the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Institutional Biosafety Committee. The committee was created to ensure that the guidelines for small scale work with recombinant DNA were followed. As part of the project approval process, the committee analysed project proposals and granted approval based on established guidelines. The committee was also responsible for the certification of laboratories of a C1 standard as well as reporting on investigations of accidents during recombinant DNA work or illnesses that may have arisen due to recombinant DNA work. Although research involving genetic engineering is required to seek approval from an accredited Institutional Biosafety Committee according to the federal Gene Technology Act 2000, the hospital ceased to run its own committee and now refers to the committee of other institutions such as the University of Melbourne to approve such project proposals.