Amexbio

AMEXBIO is made up of a multidisciplinary group with an interest in promoting the development of biosecurity and biosecurity in Mexico. AMEXBIO promotes scientific and technological activities that contribute to the safe handling of biologically active or infectious material that pose a risk to the population or the environment. AMEXBIO promotes teaching activites in Biosecurity, training and continuing education for professionals. The organization also supports forums and collaborations in Spanish on Biosecurity issues. AMEXBIO provides funding for scientific studies on Biosecurity, a subject promoted by AMEXBIO to be recognized as a scientific discipline. AMEXBIO also promotes coordination with national and foreign organizations.

The founding president of AMEXBIO is Dr. Edgar E. Sevilla-Reyes, a researcher in Infectious Diseases and Chair of the Institutional Biosafety Committee at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) in Mexico City. Sevilla-Reyes is a member of the Certification Board at the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA). Past president of AMEXBIO Jose Alberto Diaz-Quinonez is a member of AMEXBIO’s strategic planning commission. Diaz-Quinonez is the Assistant Director General of the Mexican National Reference Laboratory and has been involved in advising and coordinating in areas of biosafety related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and in response to biological, chemical and radio-nuclear terrorism.

AMEXBIO organized the first International Symposium on Biosafety and Biocustody in 2009. In 2014 AMEXBIO brought together a working group for the elaboration of its own guidelines for biological risk management based on the CWA15793 Laboratory biorisk management standard which is a CEN workshop agreement (CWA) established by CEN, the European Committee For Standardization.

AMEXBIO organizes the biosafety symposium (SIBB), a meeting for training, analysis, proposals and discussion about biological security and infectious biological materials in the environment in Mexico. SIBB is intended for professionals in the fields of human health, agriculture and industry that are involved in issues of biosafety, biocontainment, management of biological and biotechnological risks and in handling of infectious biological materials.

A collaboration between the Arizona State University (ASU) Biosafety and Biosecurity Program and AMEXBIO called the ASU/AmexBio initiative aims to strengthen biosafety and biosecurity initiatives across the US and Mexico border. ASU/AmexBio initiative is providing a platform to share information and training and establish research collaborations in relation to emerging biological and gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9, zinc fingers, TALENs, synthetic biology and gene drives.