Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) oversees the use of animals for research, teaching, and testing conducted at or by UAB. The responsibility of the committee is to provide support, guidance, and oversight to research investigators and all staff working with and caring for animals in the animal use program while upholding the regulatory requirements and standards of federal and international oversight agencies. Compliance with international, federal, and university policies, regulations, and standards is important for animal welfare and continued financial support of the researchers and the university.

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) office is responsible for maintaining proper record-keeping required to ensure clear accountability for the quality of the program, proper record-keeping for the issuance of approval for use of vertebrate animals (and some invertebrate animals), and ensuring that the laws governed by the Public Health Service (PHS)/Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) are followed.

In order to assure institutional compliance with sound principles of humane animal care and existing laws, and to protect the research interests of the community, all protocols requiring the use of animals must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. This policy extends to all grants submitted for extramural funding, all internally funded research projects (including pilot studies), all testing, and any teaching involving the use of animals.