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                MCMi Professional Development Activities

MCMi Professional Development Activities

                        About MCMi Professional Development
          Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Clinical Trials Involving High-Consequence Pathogens
          Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment Laboratories Home
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          Medical Countermeasures Initiative (MCMi)
          MCMi Professional Development Activities
          Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment LaboratoriesMCMi Professional Development Activities Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment Laboratories
  
  	
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              Photo monrage of attendees participating in the annual training course where they learn best practices for ensuring data quality and integrity in mock BSL-4 facilities that shows a lab, a BSL-4 suit and a classroom.


  Caption
        
      Attendees participate in this annual training course where they learn best practices for ensuring data quality and integrity in BSL-4 facilities.Current course****| Background | Course description | FAQs | Scientific publications | Related information

Current course

April 15-19, 2024

**Location: Galveston**, **TX** **or******virtual

**Registration now open:**

**In-person pre-registration**
	**Virtual pre-registration**UTMB information for 2024 course - Visit this page from our course partner for more information.

There is no cost to attend, but seating is limited, and pre-registration is required. Note that course attendees are invited based upon diversity of roles, responsibilities, and organization. Interested participants will be placed on a waitlist once seats are filled.

Background

FDA helps protect the United States from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and emerging infectious disease threats by ensuring that medical countermeasures (MCMs—for example, drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic tests) to counter these threats are safe, effective, and secure.

Scientists working to develop MCMs against several high-priority biological threat agents are at high risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infection and life-threatening disease, as there are no vaccines or treatments for these agents. Accordingly, much of the work to develop MCMs for these high-priority agents must be done in high and maximum biosafety level (BSL)-4 laboratories to prevent the agents from being released into the environment, and to provide maximum safety for the scientists.

***The unique challenges of BSL-4***

An instructor assists a participant into a BSL-4 protective suit before conducting simulated BSL-4 lab exercises during the 2015 data quality courseWhile necessary to ensure lab worker safety and prevent accidental release of dangerous pathogens, BSL-4 environments pose unique challenges to developing MCMs. For example, data generated to support a regulatory submission to FDA must be collected in accordance with quality systems, like good laboratory practice (GLP) regulations, to be useful and reliable, and to facilitate FDA review to ensure safety and efficacy.

However, meeting data quality and integrity standards like GLP in a BSL-4 environment is challenging. Current practice is often inconsistent among laboratories due to technological infrastructure, available internal standard operating procedures, level of regulatory awareness, and individual breadth of experience and training. And completing even routine lab tasks in a protective BSL-4 suit can be difficult—imagine, for example, trying to pick up a small item, like a toothpick, while wearing two pairs of thick gloves.

To help address the challenges associated with ensuring data quality and integrity in regulated studies conducted in BSL-4 laboratories to support MCM development, FDA and the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston National Laboratory (UTMB) collaborate to provide an annual training course on how to meet GLP requirements in BSL-4 facilities (“data quality course”).

**This popular course offers a unique opportunity for the regulatory and scientific communities to discuss complex issues in an interactive environment and identify and share best practices for ensuring data quality and integrity in BSL-4 facilities.**

In addition to UTMB and FDA, other federal partners from the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR) provide support and resources for this course. These partners include:

From the National Institutes of Health
	Office of the Director
		National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
		National Cancer Institute (NCI)
	From the Department of Defense
	U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC)From the Department of Homeland Security
	National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC)Course description

The week-long, data quality course is designed to help researchers who conduct studies intended to support approval under the Animal Rule, which may be used to grant marketing approval of certain products when human challenge studies would not be ethical or feasible.

The course includes expert lectures and hands-on laboratory activities conducted in BSL-2 and BSL-4 training laboratories to emphasize the differences between biosafety levels, and the complexity of conducting laboratory activities in a BSL-4 environment. An online training module on GLP regulations (21 CFR Part 58) is included as a course pre-requisite. For additional information, visit the official UTMB course website.

Topics covered include:

Animal Rule regulations, and clinical applications of Animal Rule studies
	An instructor assists a participant conducting a simulated BSL-2 lab exercise during the 2015 data quality courseAssay validation
	BSL-2/3/4 comparison, with hands-on simulations
	BSL-4 equipment, with hands-on work in a BSL-4 training lab
	Disease agent characterization
	GLP regulations
	Good documentation practices
	Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols
	Telemetry
	Supportive care
	Surrogate endpoints
	Testing facility management
	Veterinary pathology
	Integration of quality assurance (QA) in BSL-4 studies
	Advancement of MCMs on the international stage*Learning objectives for participants:*

Determine requirements needed to conduct high-quality studies to develop appropriate MCMs
	Identify criteria used to evaluate MCMs in animal models that reflect human disease
	Examine modern methods to comply with data quality standards when conducting nonclinical studies in maximum containment

FAQs

Who may attend?
	FDA welcomes participants from government, industry, and academia. We welcome international participation as well; attendees in previous years have included representatives from international public health agencies. Attendees typically include:Course participants listen to an expert lecture during the 2017 data quality course

Policy-makers
	MCM product sponsors (industry)
	Quality assurance personnel
	Regulators
	Reviewers
	Scientists
	VeterinariansPre-requisites include GLP and IACUC training that are available to course attendees.

What do attendees say about the course?
	Participants overwhelmingly share that they will apply knowledge gained during this course, ultimately resulting in improved patient and public health outcomes. In recent years, 96% of participants indicated that they would like to attend this course again in the future, and 94% would recommend the course to a colleague.

**"The collection of knowledge from the government and industry compiled for this course is unparalleled. For those who work with developing MCMs, this is the most relevant training course that I have ever seen.”**

*--course participant*****

How much does it cost?
	There are no registration fees for this FDA-sponsored course, however, seats are limited, and course attendees are invited based upon diversity of roles, responsibilities, and organization. Interested participants will be placed on a waitlist once seats are filled.

Scientific publications

Eitzen M, Jones E, McCowan J, Brasel T. A Cross-Disciplinary Training Program for the Advancement of Medical Countermeasures. Health Secur. 2019 Jul/Aug;17(4):344-351. https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2019.0032

Poster – Measuring the Success of the UTMB-FDA Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment Laboratories, presented in August 2017 (PDF, 833 KB) [ARCHIVED]

Poster – Measuring the Success of the UTMB-FDA Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment Laboratories, presented in August 2017 (PDF, 833 KB)

Related information

Information about the course from UTMB
	Sister course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Clinical Trials Involving High-Consequence Pathogens
	View photos from the 2015 course on Flickr
	MCMi News and Events
	Office of Scientific Professional Development

                                                                                  Content current as of:
      01/26/2024
              
              
Regulated Product(s)
		 Biologics
			  			     			  			     DrugsTopic(s)
			  Training & Education
				    				       				    				       Terrorism
				       				    				       Radiological
				       				    					
				  
				    
				  Animal RuleLaw(s) & Regulation(s)
			  Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (PAHPRA)MCMi Professional Development Activities

          
                        About MCMi Professional Development
          Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Clinical Trials Involving High-Consequence Pathogens
          Training Course: Achieving Data Quality and Integrity in Maximum Containment Laboratories
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