Virology Laboratory

The CPRC Virology Laboratory is located in the School of Medicine at the Medical Sciences Campus. This laboratory includes a BL2/3 Virology facility, which consists of a tissue culture laboratory (20' x 17'), two Biosafety Level-2 Laboratories (about 18' x 15'each) and one Biosafety Level-2 Virology Laboratory (800 sq. feet). In addition, and for the analysis of PCR products, the Virology Unit uses the Molecular Biology Laboratory (17' x 14' sq. feet) located on the 5th floor. Together these laboratories support procedures such as tissue culture, virus purification, immunology techniques, cloning, bacterial transformation, nucleic acid purification, PCR etc. Using the RCMI facilities the capabilities of these laboratories can be extended to perform Flow Cytometry, automated DNA sequencing, and Proteomics analysis.

Mission

Presently this laboratory conducts serological tests for the detection of Herpes B virus (HBV), simian T-lymphotropic virus (STLV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) as part of the Specific-Pathogen Free breeding colony (SPF) program sponsored by the NIH. Also the virology lab supports the implementation of different protocols designed to test HIV/SIV vaccine candidates using non-human primates as models. Under the sponsorship of an RO1 (NIAID) the laboratory has recently evaluated the efficacy of our prototype SIV DNA vaccine against pathogenic SIV infection in macaques (please, see papers). Another line of research is the identification, molecular and phylogenetic characterization of the viral strains of HTLV-I and B virus circulating in the Rhesus macaque colony at Sabana Seca and at Cayo Santiago. Recently, using the Reverse Genetics methodology, a rhesus-adapted Influenza virus strain was adapted to grow in tissue culture. A restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technique for typing of Influenza virus strains has been implemented. This technique allows for the identification and confirmation of the genetic composition of newly generated recombinant Influenza virus strain. These techniques have been implemented as part of a research program centered in the development of an effective mucosal immunization system that uses influenza virus as vector.

This web site is supported by the 5P40RR003640 grant from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and by the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Grant (G12 RR03051) from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.