Site Safety

In view of the fact that we are a shared space, we adopt the general guidelines provided by the Environmental Health and Safety Office. 

• Users should review carefully the following links prior use of the RBPC.
  • https://www.brown.edu/health-safety/topics/biological-safety
  • https://www.brown.edu/health-safety/topics/fire-safety
  • https://www.brown.edu/health-safety/topics/laboratory-safety
  • https://www.brown.edu/health-safety/chemicals-use-within-care
• First Aid kits are located in the RBPC.
• Report all serious injuries to your immediate supervisor.
• Gloves and other PPE are available at the RBPC.
• Do not use any RBPC equipment without prior training from RBPC staff.
• Follow the signs in the RBPC to avoid interrupting other users in their experiments.

Standard Operating Procedures

A) Cleaning and Disinfecting Protocol

• To minimize the risk of cross contamination, the testing rooms and equipment must be sanitized before and after use.
• All users must comply with cleaning protocols and disinfecting protocols. 
• Any user found to be non-compliant will receive a verbal warning, but any further non-compliance may result in loss of access to the RBPC.
  • All users must adhere to the following cleaning and disinfecting protocol:
  • Ensure the room has been properly cleaned prior to bringing in animals, if it is not sufficiently clean, let RBPC staff know immediately.
  • Wipe down all surfaces and equipment carefully with Clorhexidine 0.2% (DO NOT use ethanol in Plexiglass).
  • Wipe down cart shelves with Clorhexidine 0.2%
  • Bring in animals for acclimation
  • In between each animal, clean the equipment with Clorhexidine 0.2%
  • After testing is complete, return animals to their housing room
  • Wipe down all surfaces and equipment with Clorhexidine 0.2%
  • After disinfecting, disassemble equipment and put it back into the designated storage space.
  • If bedding, padding, or animal fluids fall on the floor, disinfect with spray and  mop.
  • You are RESPONSIBLE for proper handling and disposal of any materials that you bring to the RBPC, including sharps, controlled substances, and other chemicals. Sharps and biohazardous containers are properly placed in the RBPC. Routine pick up of these containers will be performed by the technician.

B) Animal Housing

• Your animals are housed and cared for CARE. The RBPC staff is not responsible for arranging transfers, room assignments, or day to day care of any animals housed in BMC.
• All arrangements regarding animal transfers, room assignments, diet, etc can be directed to [email protected].
• To gain card access to housing rooms contact [email protected].
• If the RBPC runs the experiments for the investigator, then a transfer of animals to the RBPC protocols will be required. 

D) Animal Disaster Plan

• In the event of an emergency all animals within BMC will be taken care of by CARE personnel and they will reserve the right to make the decision to relocate or euthanize animals if it becomes absolutely necessary.
• Review any animal disaster plan provided by CARE prior to running your experiments in the RBPC, so you are prepared to take action in the event of an emergency.
• The director/staff will share their cell phones with users to be accessible for emergency calls.
• Attend to your animals’ safety only if it is safe for you to do so.

D) Dissemination Guidelines

• Acknowledge the RBPC in any publications or posters that result from data collected here, this is vital to show user engagement and receive support.
• Authorship may be warranted and/or advantageous, if there is substantial involvement of the RBPC in the development of novel behavioral tasks/experimental design for your project, statistical analysis/consultation, interpretation of behavioral results and/or assistance in writing any portion of the paper. Having the Director/staff as a co-author can also help provide more credibility regarding behavioral expertise for labs whose expertise lies elsewhere.