IBSC

IBSC Home

The Institute Biosafety Committee (IBSC) of the BITS, Pilani - K K Birla Goa Campus has been operational since 2015.

To quote from the guidelines issued by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, the IBSC is mandated to act " As a statutory committee that operates from the premises of an organisation, IBSC is in a position to conduct onsite evaluation, assessment and monitoring of adherence to the biosafety guidelines with overall oversight of the regulatory
process, at the institutional level."

Committee Members

The constitution of the committee is as under: (renewed in 2019)

Chairman: Director, BITS, Pilani - KK Birla Goa Campus.
Member Secretary: Dean/Associate Dean, BITS, Pilani - KK Birla Goa Campus.
Internal Members: Dr. Sumit Biswas Dr. Utpal Roy Dr. Angshuman Sarkar
DBT nominee: Prof. Sanjeev Ghadi, Goa University
External Expert: Dr. Samir Damre, National Institute of Oceanography
Medical Officer: Dr. Steffi Soares, BITS, Pilani - KK Birla Goa Campus.

Role of an IBSC

IBSC has to review all recombinant research carried out by an organisation depending upon the category of experiments, IBSC can simply note the information provided by PI, give permission before start of the experiments or forward it to RCGM for approval as per the Recombinant DNA Safety Guidelines, 1990 of DBT.

Category I experiments involving self cloning, using strains and also inter species cloning belonging to organism in the same exchanger group etc. are exempt for the purpose of intimation and approval.

Category II experiments falling under containment levels II, III and IV, large scale use of recombinants made of self cloning in systems belonging to exempt category etc. require prior intimation to IBSC.

Category III experiments involving toxin gene cloning, cloning of genes for vaccine production, use of infectious animals and plant viruses, self fusion experiments, field testing and release of GMOs etc. require review and approval of IBSC before commencement.