NWABR’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) conference, held on March 31, 2016 at the Bellevue Hyatt Hotel, received glowing evaluations. A few of the selected comments include:
• Just really well done! Kudos goes out to everyone who was able to make it happen. I loved all the information I was able to receive.
• Most useful conference I have attended.
• Great conference, I'm going to recommend more of our IACUC members attend next year's event.
• The conference was a wonderful learning experience with a great opportunity for networking. The variety of topics was stimulating and the speakers were not only well versed in their subject, but also very good communicators.
• Wish I lived in the NW region. Fantastic conference.
NWABR’s conference team is getting very good at juggling the competing educational demands of institutional research communities. Board President Ms. Cami Gearhart said “the conference planning committees always include presentations that focus on the basics – these sessions cover what the instuitional research committees do and why this work is important. And then they dive in deep on new and emerging subjects, subjects that may be causing issues for the community and subjects that show research that has made the translational leap to human and animal therapies.”
“The committees also realize that it is important for participants to connect with each other and to be able to interact with presenters and the various folks from the compliance agencies” said Ms. Gearhart.
NWABR Executive Director Ken Gordon noted NWABR’s ability to partner with leading agencies, speakers and vendors in designing the conferences. For the March 31st IACUC conference, NWABR worked closely with IACUC 101 and PRIM&R conferences that were happening that same week. This alignment ensured that each of the conferences presented appropriate materials and that unnecessary duplication of materials was avoided. Gordon said “We were nervous to meet the standards set by PRIM&R and IACUC 101, however as it turned out our event was the perfect mix of practical and theoretical advice and also included very good food."
"In total we had 276 attendees with events encompassing a tour of animal welfare facilities at the University of Washington and a highly regarded conference program.”
On July 21, 2016 NWABR will present its next institutional research conference “Ethics and Regulations in the Digital Age.” This Institutional Review Board (IRB) conference focuses on the protection of human subjects in research. For this conference NWABR will again work with Quorum Review IRB as its co-presenting partner. Additionally, NWABR will partner with our Platinum Sponsors, the University of Washington and the WIRB Copernicus Group, to deliver a comprehensive IRB conference program. Confirmed speakers include representatives from the Office of Human Research Protections and also from the US Food and Drug Administration.
This year’s IRB conference will be hosted at the SeaTac Marriot Hotel, providing incredibly easy access to light rail and the airport.
NWABR is also planning two further conferences for the broad biomedical research community. These are:
• The Security and Crisis Communications Conference, September 20, 2016, and
• The Institutional Biosafety Conference, January 2017
If you wish any further information about NWABR’s conference programs then please call Executive Director, Ken Gordon, at (206) 957-3337.