Institutional Review Entity (IRE)
Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC)
- In 2014 the United States government released a policy for institutional oversight of life sciences dual use research of concern.
- Dual use research of concern (DURC) is life sciences research that can be anticipated to provide knowledge, products or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat to public health, agriculture, the environment or national security.
- The Institutional Review Entity (IRE) is the university committee which provides oversight for DURC.
- The 2014 policy coves 15 agents/toxins and 7 categories of experiment.
- If you plan to work with any of the 15 agents covering any of the 7 experimental categories, please contact the Institutional Contact for Dual Use Research (ICDUR) who is also the biosafety officer.
Standards & Regulations
15 Agents of DURC
- Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic)
- Bacillus anthracis
- Botulinum neurotoxin (any quantity)
- Burkholderia mallei
- Burkholdeia pseudomallei
- Ebola virus
- Foot-and-mouth disease virus
- Francisella tularensis
- Marburg virus
- Reconstructed 1918 influenza virus
- Rinderpest virus
- Clostridium botulinum
- variola major virus
- variola minor virus
- Yersinia pestis
7 Experimental Categories of DURC
- Enhances the harmful consequences of the agent or toxin.
- Disrupts the immunity or the effectiveness of an immunization against the agent/toxin without clinical/agricultural justification.
- Confers to the agent/toxin resistance to clinically/agriculturally useful prophylactic or therapeutic interventions or facilitates their ability to evade detection methodologies.
- Increases the stability, transmissibility or the ability to disseminate the agent/toxin.
- Alters the host range.
- Enhances the susceptibility of a host population.
- Generates/reconstitutes an eradicated or extinct agent/toxin.