The Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). the Canadian Association for Biological Safety/ L’Association Canadienne Pour La Sécurité Biologique (CABS-ACSB) and Merrick Canada ULC are pleased to co-present the International High Containment Operations and Maintenance Workshop .

This workshop addresses the increasing needs of facility operators, maintenance and operations staff for training in relevant aspects of biocontainment facilities and fills a critical need within the operations and maintenance community.

This four day course allows participants to gain hands-on experience in some of the special containment and facility support areas (CL3 and CL3-Ag) of the International Vaccine Centre (InterVac), Canada’s newest and largest CL3-Ag facility.

Proposed workshop topics will include:

After successful completion of this 4 day workshop participants will be able to:

All aspects of the workshop will be conducted in English. It is important for safety reasons that all participants be comfortable working in this language. There are only 18 spaces available for this course.

The cost to attend is $3, 450.00 CAD. If you

Please join us on May 27, 2025  (12 pm CST) for the next webinar available to CABS-ACSB Members as part of our webinar series!

The topic Strengthening Biosafety and Biosecurity through ISO 35001: Implementing a Biorisk Management System in Laboratories and Research Settings is presented by Ayoob Ghalami, University of Toronto.

ISO 35001:2019 is the first international standard for biorisk management systems, designed to help laboratories and related organizations enhance biosafety and biosecurity through a structured, risk-based approach.

While Canada benefits from the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act (HPTA), the Canadian Biosafety Standard (CBS), and the Canadian Biosafety Handbook (CBH), these primarily focus on technical compliance. ISO 35001 complements these by embedding biosafety and biosecurity

within a broader management system that promotes leadership engagement, continual improvement, and international alignment.

Implementing ISO 35001 can improve institutional accountability, foster a proactive safety culture, support internal audits, enhance emergency preparedness, and strengthen global credibility—making it a valuable addition to any organization’s biosafety and biosecurity strategy.

Registration is limited so we encourage you to RSVP soon! Please reply to info@cabs-acsb.ca .

Join us in Ottawa, ON from September 23-25, 2025 for Canada’s annual event for biosafety professionals and personnel involved in biosafety and/or biocontainment facilities.

The Canadian Biosafety Symposium will feature presentations on an array of biosafety topics, including emergency management for labs, building a biosafety culture, biosafety and public health, emerging and re-emerging diseases, laboratory acquired infections, ergonomics and safety, biowaste management and disinfection, regulations, airflow, ventilation, design and biosafety, animal issues, audits and inspections, occupational health and surveillance. It will be a unique opportunity for the biosafety community to learn and share knowledge with colleagues from across Canada and other countries.

The Canadian Biosafety Symposium brings together participants working across the biosafety field in universities, government and the private sector, such as:

The event will feature prominent containment and biosafety specialists, and will involve presentations by the Canadian and international biosafety community selected from abstracts and papers that are currently being welcomed from all sources. All topics related to biological safety are welcome.

For more information: https://www.cabs-acsb.ca/Symposium.aspx