Samples under AFSSAPS control
According to French regulation (Arrêté du 15 janvier 2004 modified by Arrêté du 30 juillet 2004, concerning the importation, exportation, possession, transfer and use, free of charge or expensive, acquisition, and transport of some biological agents responsible for infectious diseases, pathogenic micro-organisms and toxins) the ESRF has to check valid authorisation for such activities.
All biological agents falling under this law require an AFSSAPS authorisation. This includes all recombinant proteins or other molecules issued from the listed biological agents, even if there have been over-expressed in a non-pathogenic micro-organism (i.e. E. coli, insect cells, pichia pastoris, etc.).
The following document Biosecurity Sheet (doc/pdf) (Attention : only required for source organisms falling under AFSSAPS control décret du 30 juin 2010, see list of controlled organisms) is to be sent to the Biosafety Officer once completed.
The following forms:
have to be downloaded, completed and sent directly to the AFSSAPS by fax +33 (0)1 55 87 35 82 or email
Teams from France
Those wishing to come to the ESRF with biological elements falling under AFSSAPS control must provide, a copy of their authorisations corresponding to their controlled ‘biological agent’ (their or the teams with which they collaborated in order to obtain their proteins or the genes as nucleic DNA) and should request to AFSSAPS a “Autorisation de Cession” to ESRF for the time of their experimental sessions on our beamlines. It will then be possible to guarantee a complete tractability of the controlled biological agents).
SAXS samples
For teams involved in SAXS experiments who already have authorisations for crystals must request another authorisation for the new conditioning (liquid samples).
Make sure that you request a six-month authorisation (maximum validity) for several experimental sessions.