On October 15 to 25, the International Workshop on Biosafety Laboratory Management and Techniques was held successfully in Wuhan, Hubei Province. It was hosted jointly by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MFA) and implemented by Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS. 24 participants from 22 countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Poland, Cambodia, Cameroon, Croatia, Congo-Kinshasa and Egypt, participated in the workshop.
The opening ceremony of the workshop was held on the morning of October 16. There were totally over 50 participants of the opening ceremony, including Prof. Yuan Zhiming, the President of Wuhan Branch of CAS, Mr. Shen Jian, the Counsellor of the Department of Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Prof. Gao Rongbao, the researcher of the Health Emergency Response Office of National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, Mrs. Yang Yi, Secretary-General of China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, as well as the leaders, research fellows of Wuhan Institute of Virology and all the participants of the workshop. The opening ceremony was chaired by Prof. Wang Yanyi, the Deputy Director General of Wuhan Institute of Virology. Prof. Yuan Zhiming and Mr. Shenjian, on behalf of the host, extended a warm welcome to all the guests and participants in the workshop. Prof. Yuan Zhiming said that the workshop jointly hosted by CAS and MFA would further propel China and other countries to cooperate in biosafety. Mr. Shen Jian pointed out that China had been working positively on carrying out the international cooperation in biosafety and proactively providing the world community with the public products for biosafety so as to cooperate with other countries in building global biosafety barriers. Mr. Daniel Feakes, the Chief of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Implementation Support Unit, said in his video speech that the world community should further enhance the convention mechanism and propel global biosafety governance, and he believed the workshop would make contributions to the convention implementation. Prof. Gao Rongbao offered congratulations on the successful opening of the workshop and hoped the related training could further enhance the establishment of global prevention and control systems on public health and safety to jointly maintain the cause of human health.
The participants stayed in Wuhan Institute of Virology for 10 days for the training on biosafety laboratory management and techniques. During the training, Mr. Daniel Feakes, Prof. Liang Mifang and Prof. Liu Jun, the researchers of National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC, Prof. Zhang Weiwen from Tianjin University and senior experts from Wuhan Institute of Virology were invited to train the participants. The courses covered the theories about introduction on biosafety laboratories, the policies about bioethics and biosafety, laboratory management systems, biorisk assessment and the virus resource culture collection, transportation and management as well as the practical operations about biosafety operation regulations and animal experiments. Besides, in the workshop, a seminar on biosafety scientists’ code of conducts was held, and the visits to the Microorganisms & Viruses Culture Collection Center of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory and other related places were organized.
In recent years, global emerging infectious diseases have been increasing, seriously harms human health, economic growth and social stability. Biosafety laboratories are important infrastructures for carrying out disease control, clinical diagnosis and scientific research, and are the scientific research guaranteeing places against public biosafety emergencies for different countries. Enhancing biosafety laboratory management is an important measure for carrying out biotechnology research and development and preventing biosafety risks. The workshop aims to cultivate medium-senior technical and management personnel in prevention and control of infectious diseases for related countries, propel the countries to enhance the management of their own biosafety laboratories, practically improve global biosafety levels and further expand and strengthen the scientific and technical cooperation and exchanges between China and other developing countries. Through the training, the participants from different countries had got deeper understanding about China’s experience in biosafety management. They expressed their intentions of fully playing their roles as bridges to promote the workshop achievements, further enhance bilateral research collaboration and jointly fulfill the responsibilities including international biosafety and the prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Prof.Yuan Zhiming delievered a welcome speech

Worpshop site

Discussions

Practical training

Group photo