Director of Biosafety, Select Agent Alternate Responsible Official
ahelm@uchicago.edu
Allen earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology studying Salmonella chromosome structure from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was also a teaching assistant for various microbiology and microbial genetics courses. He later trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University studying genetic recombination and pathogenesis of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Allen joined the biosafety program at UChicago in 2009 as a fellow as part of the Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence Biosafety Fellowship. He consults regularly with university faculty, staff, and students, assisting them in the safe use of recombinant/synthetic DNA, pathogenic microorganisms, viral vectors, and human-derived materials, and biological toxins. He reviews protocols submitted to UChicago’s Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) and the Howard Taylor Ricketts Laboratory IBC (HTRL-IBC) and serves as a voting member on both committees.
He develops and delivers training for investigators working with biological hazards and conducts biosafety lectures for UChicago faculty, staff, students, and visiting scientists. Allen is an Alternate Responsible Official (ARO) for UChicago’s Select Agent Program and serves as a member of the University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Allen is an active member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), American Biological Safety Association (ABSA International), and the Midwest Area Biosafety Network (MABioN), and serves as Senior Laboratory Safety Editor for the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. He is listed on ASM’s National Registry of Certified Microbiologists as a biosafety subject matter expert and is credentialed as a Registered Biosafety Professional (RBP) and a Certified Biological Safety Professional (CBSP) via ABSA International.