69th Annual Biosafety and Biosecurity Hybrid Conference
Tuesday Scientific Program
All times listed will be Eastern Standard Time
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Session 8 | Eagleson Lecture Award
8:00 – 8:45 am Title: TBD
Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, MD, McGovern Medical School (UTHealth Houston), Houston, TX
8:45 – 9:00 am Q&A Session
McGovern Medical School (UTHealth Houston), Houston, TX
Dr. Ostrosky-Zeichner is a professor of medicine and epidemiology, Memorial Hermann Endowed Chair, the Executive Vice-Chair of Medicine for Healthcare Quality, the director of the Laboratory of Mycology Research, and the Division Chief at the Division of Infectious Diseases of the McGovern Medical School. He also serves as the Chief Epidemiology Officer for the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and as Director for Infection prevention for UT Physicians. Dr. Ostrosky-Zeichner obtained his medical degree from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He completed his internal medicine residency at Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, and his infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and MD Anderson Cancer Center combined fellowship program. Dr. Ostrosky-Zeichner is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the Academy of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology. He is a Senior Editor for Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and an Associate Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases. He is the Past-President of the Mycoses Study Group and Educational Consortium. He is also a past chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Standards and Practice Guidelines Committee and has been a consultant to the US FDA and CDC. He has advanced training and experience in medical mycology, healthcare epidemiology, emerging infections, antimicrobial stewardship, general and transplant infectious diseases, and healthcare quality, and has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and books on those topics.
9:00 – 9:15 am | Break
Session 9 | Biosafety Grab-bag
9:15 – 9:30 am Infection Prevention and Control and Biosafety. Two Roads. Same Destination.
Tom Walus, Canadian Association for Biological Safety, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Biosafety and infection prevention and control share the common goal of protecting public health.
9:30 – 9:45 am Guidelines Needed for the Role of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Biohazardous Research
Daniel Eisenman, PhD, RBP(ABSA), CBSP(ABSA), SM(NRCM), Advarra, Research Triangle Park, NC
Discuss how AI and robotics will impact biomedical research and how biosafety programs and IBCs should prepare.
9:45 – 10:00 am A Multidisciplinary Framework for Clinical Biosafety at Boston Children’s Hospital
Madeeha Maqsood, MS, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
Expanding advanced therapies require harmonized biosafety frameworks across clinical settings to protect staff, patients, and the community while ensuring safe, consistent handling of investigational biologics; this approach enables rapid, standardized guidance implementation.
10:00 – 10:15 am Q&A Session
Canadian Association for Biological Safety, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Tom Walus, BSc, RBSO (CABS-ACSB) is the Account Executive and Biosafety professional for Arcoplast. He is also the Finance chair for the Canadian Association for Biological Safety (CABS-ACSB). He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He has over 35 years of experience in clinical microbiology having worked at the Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg. He also spent 3 years as the lab manager for microbiology at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. He also worked at the International Centre for Infectious Diseases, in Winnipeg, as program director for biosafety. He also worked for 7 years as the Biosafety Officer for Shared Health and Diagnostic Services Manitoba in Winnipeg.
Advarra, Research Triangle Park, NC
Dan Eisenman is Executive Director of Biosafety Services at Advarra, a large clinical research compliance company. Dan heads a commercial IBC overseeing over 1,600 clinical and basic science research sites. Prior to joining Advarra Dan was the Biosafety Officer at the Medical University of South Carolina and UNC Chapel Hill. Dan holds a PhD in molecular biology and immunology, various biosafety certifications (RBP, SM(NRCM), CBSP) and a Regulatory Affairs Pharmaceuticals certificate from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). He is a member of the Editorial Board for Applied Biosafety and frequently speaks at major conferences on topics involving biosafety, gene therapy and clinical trials.
Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
Madeeha Maqsood, originally from Lahore, Pakistan, and raised in Arizona, USA, is the first in her family to pursue higher education. She holds a Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Arizona State University. Currently, Madeeha serves as the Senior Biosafety Program Coordinator and Associate Biosafety Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). In this role, she conducts risk assessments, develops safety protocols, and oversees the biosafety program to ensure compliance with safety standards. She also serves as a voting member of BCH’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Madeeha actively promotes safety at BCH through educational initiatives, including organizing Lab Representative Town Halls, conducting Safety Audits, and leading the Annual RLSO Safety Fairs, all of which foster a culture of safe research practices across the institution.
10:15 – 10:45 am | Exhibits, Posters, and Coffee Break
Session 10 | Invited Speaker
10:45 – 11:30 am Title: TBD
Speaker: TBD
11:30 – 11:45 am Q&A Session
11:45 – 1:15 pm | Exhibits, Posters, and Lunch
Session 11 | Poster Session
12:15 – 1:15 pm Presenters must be available during the session.
Session 12 | Animal, Vegetable, Min…er Biosafety
1:15 – 1:30 pm Static to Dynamic: A Novel Approach to Vivarium Biosafety Signage
Meagan P. Fitzpatrick, MPH, Princeton, Princeton, NJ
Illuminate creative and low-resource ways to use existing institutional IT platforms to resolve biosafety hazard communication challenges in vivarium facilities.
1:30 – 1:45 pm Who Let the Dogs in? Service Animals in Academic Research Environments
Zoey Yi, MS, University of Missouri—Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
Highlight how clearer, standardized service animal policies can reduce biosafety risk while supporting accessibility and regulatory compliance in academic laboratories.
1:45 – 2:00 pm Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera) as a Continuous Surveillance and Detection System for Fungal Pathogens in the Environment
Victoria Everhart, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK
Sequencing of microorganisms found in honeybee hive debris reveals informative variations in microbial community structure across different environments, demonstrating the use of honey bees as a useful pathogen monitoring system relevant to biosecurity and agricultural health.
2:00 – 2:15 pm Protecting Innovation: Biosafety in Crop Science
Bria Kettle, PhD, RBP(ABSA), Bayer, Chesterfield, MO
By challenging the misconception that plant and crop research poses minimal or no biosafety risk, we can strengthen safe agricultural innovation, support responsible use of biological crop protection tools, and help close corresponding emerging regulatory gaps.
2:15 – 2:45 pm Q&A Session
Princeton, Princeton, NJ
Meagan Fitzpatrick is the assistant director and biosafety officer at Princeton University where she directs the biosafety, animal safety and field research safety programs. Prior to working at Princeton, Meagan was the EHS manager at Covance Laboratories. She has also held previous biosafety roles in other higher education institutions: biosafety officer at Georgia Tech and research safety specialist at Emory University.
University of Missouri—Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
Zoey Yi-Garcia is a Biosafety Officer at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she supports safe, compliant, and responsible biological research across academic laboratories. She holds a Master of Science in Biological Sciences and has a strong foundation in molecular biology, tissue culture, and laboratory best practices. Yi-Garcia brings extensive hands-on research experience to her biosafety role, enabling her to effectively bridge regulatory requirements with practical laboratory operations. She is deeply committed to biosafety education, scientific communication, and fostering a strong culture of safety within research environments. Yi-Garcia remains committed to lifelong learning and the advancement of biosafety practices that support high-quality, impactful research.
University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK
Victoria Everhart is a graduate research student with the Forensic Science Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from Oklahoma State University, and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Forensic Science – Molecular Biology from the University of Central Oklahoma. Her graduate research centers around investigating the utilization of honey bees as efficient monitors of environmental fungal pathogens. Her research aims to improve national biosecurity surveillance and pathogen monitoring strategies that impact agriculture and human health.
Bayer, Chesterfield, MO
Bria Kettle is a biosafety professional in the life sciences and currently serves as the Biosafety & Crop Science Biologics Stewardship Manager for North America, Australia, and New Zealand within Bayer. She provides strategic direction and operational oversight for a multi-divisional biosafety program supporting pharmaceutical and crop science R&D and manufacturing in addition to stewardship activities for biologically based crop protection products with an emphasis on risk-based decision-making and regulatory compliance. For crop science, the biosafety program encompasses the responsible management of biological agents and biologically derived products across laboratory, greenhouse, and field contexts, including containment and exposure controls, work practices, training, and documentation that support safe handling and transport. Dr. Kettle leads and advises on biosafety risk assessments for biological materials and activities, supports biosafety aspects of facility and program readiness, and develops and maintains procedures and training that enables teams to execute work safely and compliantly throughout the product life cycle. Since 2018, she has served as a regional biosafety expert for Bayer and contributes to global expert panels, providing technical guidance and stakeholder engagement across functions and sites. Dr. Kettle earned her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kansas, where she studied transcriptional regulation in Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri. She is an active member of ABSA International and holds the Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) credential.
2:45 – 3:45 pm | Coffee Break, Posters, Exhibits, and Raffle
Exhibitor raffle prizes will be awarded – must be present to win
Session 13 | Applied Biosafety
3:45 – 4:00 pm BSC Mythbusters: Can All Holes in a HEPA Filter be Detected?
Kara Brunelle, PhD, Baker, Sanford, ME
The standard HEPA leak-check protocol will detect most holes in the filter medium, but there is a minimum that will not be discovered in the BSC.
4:00 – 4:15 pm No Germs Left Behind: Biological Verification Testing of a Chemical Effluent Decontamination System
Sabena Blakeney, PhD, RBP(ABSA), CBSP(ABSA), Pond & Company, Peachtree Corners, GA
Demonstrates that a simple, bench-top biological verification method can provide a practical and accessible validation framework for chemical effluent decontamination systems in high-containment laboratories.
4:15 – 4:30 pm Evaluation of Hybrid Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor for DNA Amplicon Inactivation in Sensitive Molecular Systems
Elizabeth Massoth, CURIS System, Manhattan, KS
Hybrid hydrogen peroxide vapor provides a practical method to control DNA amplicon contamination in sensitive PCR-based environments while enabling reuse of previously contaminated equipment and improving material compatibility compared to more aggressive chemistries.
4:30 – 4:45 pm When Steam Doesn’t Work: How to Choose Alternative Decontamination Methods?
Karen Gjendal, DVM, PhD, Bavarian Nordic A/S, Kvistgaard, Denmark
Challenging traditional ways of decontaminating production vessels used for manufacturing with highly pathogenic agents.
4:45 – 5:15 pm Q&A Session
Baker, Sanford, ME
Kara Brunelle, PhD, brings an extensive knowledge of Cell Biology, Pharmacology, and Biosafety to The Baker Company. Prior to her coming on board, she was a Lab Manager, Safety Officer, and Researcher at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. She earned her PhD at the University of Vermont Cell and Molecular Biology Program, Department of Pharmacology and then completed her postdoctoral training at Yale University in the Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program. Her recent experience in academic research brings a unique perspective, familiarity and hands-on knowledge base with laboratory science. As the Science Director for Baker, she has helped provide some clarity into the nuances of Biosafety through the use of Biosafety Cabinets and containment devices.
Pond & Company, Peachtree Corners, GA
Dr. Sabena Blakeney is the Associate Director of Science & Technology at Pond & Company, where she specializes in biorisk management and biological safety. She holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and brings more than 14 years of biosafety experience, along with over a decade of research experience that includes work with select agents in a federal ABSL-3Ag facility. Dr. Blakeney has expertise in biological agent use registrations, animal study protocol review, laboratory audits, incident investigations, and biosafety training. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Biosafety and Biocontainment Training Program and credentialed as both a Certified Biological Safety Professional (CBSP) and a Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) through ABSA International.
CURIS System, Manhattan, KS
Elizabeth (McQuade) Massoth is the CURIS System Biocontainment Specialist. Massoth came to CURIS from the Biosecurity Research Institute at Kansas State University, a BSL-3, ABSL-3, ABSL-3Ag, and ACL-3 facility. Prior to working in high-containment, she was a Research Assistant/Supervisor at the K-State Rabies Laboratory with ten years of experience in high complexity cell culture-based assays in a GMP/GLP/GCLP laboratory. Massoth has co-authored publications in the Journal of Applied Biosafety; has presented at numerous biosafety, animal research, and pharma conferences; and is working towards her master’s degree in Agribusiness.
Bavarian Nordic A/S, Kvistgaard, Denmark
Karen Gjendal serves as the Head of Global Biorisk Management at Bavarian Nordic, a leading vaccine manufacturer operating a commercial-scale, high-containment facility in Kvistgaard, Denmark. Bavarian Nordic is recognized for its expertise in the production, analysis, and release of sterile vaccines for human use, strictly adhering to EU cGMP standards. The company’s portfolio includes vaccines for Smallpox, Rabies, Tick-Borne Encephalitis, and Chikungunya, alongside several innovative, life-saving vaccines currently in development. Karen is responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously optimizing a comprehensive Biorisk Management program across all company sites. This includes the development and enforcement of robust protocols to mitigate safety and security risks associated with the handling, storage, and disposal of biological agents and toxins, particularly within high-containment manufacturing environments. Karen ensures that all Biorisk Management processes are fully compliant with GMP and regulatory requirements, thereby safeguarding both product integrity and personnel safety. As Head of Global Biorisk Management, Karen leads cross-functional training initiatives, conducts detailed risk assessments, and provides strategic input for the optimization of facility systems, equipment, and training programs. All with the purpose of fostering a culture of biosafety and biosecurity, supporting the company’s mission to deliver safe and effective vaccines on a global scale.
6:00 – 10:00 pm | Banquet