Mechanisms for protection include deposit agreements, transfer agreements, patents and licenses. International treaties on protection of intellectual property will be discussed. Different types of reagents might require different information to keep them organized and easy to retrieve, e.g. laboratory vs. clinical samples. Managing inventory and other data associated with the biological material. Current smaller database suitable for being used in the field or individual laboratories.
Case study databases with hands on opportunity.
Setting up inventory control systems, scientific databases and controlling data access. There are sensitive issues regarding sample collection and human subjects protection. Researchers need to ensure that material collected from humans is obtained and used in an ethical manner. Ethical principles underlie the guidelines and regulations developed by national governments, international organizations and professional groups. Current US regulations apply to research supported by the US government.