Overview of the VBL Suites and Research Capability

Virus culture and propagation.
Development of reagents and assays for virus characterization.
Identification of viral epitopes critical for antibody binding and neutralization.
Generation and production of reporter viruses.
Virus neutralization assays.
In-vitro immune assays, including high-throughput ELISA assays (Bio-Plex).

Development of animal models of viral infection suitable for screening vaccine and therapeutic candidates and/or pathogenesis studies.
Understanding the biology of disease transmission in small animal models.
Studies on the evolution and emergence viruses including the identification of factors that affect viral host-range and virulence.
Identification and evaluation of the innate, cellular and humoral immune responses to viral infection.
Understanding immune-mediated pathology or host factors that might predispose to severe infection.
Development of vaccine and therapeutic candidates against viral infections.

The VBL will provide safe and secure facility for investigators to maintain and colonize infected ticks / mosquitoes for studies such as:

Vector competence,
Understand the biology of diseases transmission by mosquitoes and ticks.
Assess the ability of mosquitoes and ticks to transmit diseases.
Vaccine & therapeutics evaluation by natural disease transmission by ticks and mosquitoes including human transmission studies.