CRO Expertise
Vaccine Development
HSV-1 AND HSV-2 INFECTION MODELS
- Intravaginal inoculation of HSV-2 virus to monitor morbidity (clinical score & body weight loss), mortality and viral load during primary and recurrent phases in both female mice and guinea pigs**
- HSV-2 infection model in male guinea pig
- Intranasal infection with attenuated and virulent HSV-1 strains
- Ocular infection of HSV1 in mice and rabbits
- Evaluate systemic and mucosal immune responses and protection
- Investigate latency and recurrence using clinical scores and RT-qPCR
RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS (RSV)
- RSV infection of cotton rats
- Infection of Balb/c mice results in low and moderate level of replication that peaks on Day 4
- Clinical symptoms: weight loss, changes in lung function and clinical signs
- Pulmonary eosinophilia
Recognized expertise in infectious disease
- NIH/NIAID, CDC funded mucosal HSV-2 and RSV vaccine research grants (~$10M)
- Seven-year contract from NIAD to develop animal models of infectious diseases to a research consortium including:
1. Biomere
2. UMASS Medical School
3. US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
4. Jackson Laboratories
OTHER INFECTION MODELS AVAILABLE
- Influenza H1N1 virus infection (edema & fibrosis studies)
- Customize virus infection models for clients
- Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV)
- Humanized mouse models for infectious diseases
Webinars
Casey Maguire, Harvard Medical School – Strategies for in vivo Barriers to Gene Therapy Vectors
Technical Sheets
Articles
A mucosal vaccination approach for herpes simplex virus type 2.
KTirabassi, R.S., Ace, C., Levchenko, T.S., Torchilin, V.P., Selin, L.K., Nie, S., Guberski, D.L., Yang, K. Vaccine 29 (2011) 1090-1098.
Mucosal vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus
Kejian Yang and Steven M Varga; Current Opinion in Virology 2014, 6:78–84.
