Mandated Committees

Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Subjects Research

Committee Description & Work Load:

The committee on Human Subjects exists so that Tufts remains in compliance with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regulations regarding the use of human subjects in research projects. All Tufts investigators proposing to study human subjects must have their protocols approved by this committee (which is referred to by DHHS as the Institutional Review Board or IRB). The IRB is a panel of Tufts faculty and staff, as well as individuals from the community that reviews all human research proposals to determine if they are assuring adequate protection of human participants. Proposals that are deemed by the panel to be likely to provide inadequate protection are returned to the investigator; usually with suggestions for modification. Approval will be processed once these issues have been addressed. Administration of the IRB is provided by the Office of the Vice Provost, with Yvonne Wakeford as the IRB Administrator.

Proposals that must be reviewed by the IRB include: (1) all government sponsored grant proposals (e.g., NIH and NSF) using human subjects, (2) proposals to private and state funding agencies using human subjects, and (3) non-funded human research not covered by another IRB. The IRB does not review projects proposed by researchers from outside the Tufts (Medford) community. The committee meets on a monthly basis for 11 months of the year with the exception being August.