SpecialtiesCalifornia Research Center for the Biology of HIV in Minorities
Virology Core
The Virology Core is located at the partner institution, the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory (VRDL) of the California Department of Health Services. The mission of the Virology Core is to support research activities of the Center, including the pilot projects that are selected through the Pilot Projects Core, by providing clinical laboratory testing and serve as a training center for diagnostic virology and a variety of other methods, associated with HIV research. In addition, the Virology Core is available to provide virologic expertise needed by the major research project and provide results which can be analyzed by ethnicity and gender.
The VRDL has a 14-year history of involvement in many aspects of HIV/AIDS biomedical research, including prospective natural history cohort studies, lab support for clinical trials of HIV prevention (both vaccine and non-vaccine), clinical trials of immune modulation, and most recently, pre-clinical vaccine development.
The Virology Core is available for collaborative studies among Center investigators. This involves both participation in hypothesis-driven clinical research, more basic laboratory research, and standardized clinical laboratory services that is integral in clinical studies.
Virology Core Services
Contact Haynes Sheppard at hsheppar@dhs.ca.gov or (510) 307-8538 to discuss how the Virology Core may be able to assist and/or collaborate with you in your AIDS research effort.
Specimen Processing
| Serum or plasma processing and storage | $15 |
| PBMC processing and storage | $35 |
| Specimen retrieval | $5 |
Antibody Neutralization
| MT-2 microplaque neutralizing antibody assay | $140 |
| Neutralization assays in primary cell cultures | $250 |
| Combination fusion inhibition/neutralization assay | $300 |
| Neutralization assays in tonsil histoculture | $300 |
Virologic Assays
| p24 antigen capture assay | $25 |
| Diagnostic DNA PCR (qualitative) | $90 |
| Viral load RNA PCR (quantitative) | $115 |
| NucliSense (ACTG certified laboratory) | $115 |
Virus Isolation
| Individual tube culture (high sensitivity) | $250 |
| Multi-well mini-cultures (good sensitivity) | $100 |
| Quantitation of infectious units of HIV in PBMC and plasma | $250 |
| Virus expansion (100 mL) | $150 |
Virus Characterization
| Nucleic acid purification and amplification | $50 |
| HMA/HTA | $100 |
| HIV DNA Sequencing | |
| env | $200 |
| gag | $200 |
| pol | $200 |
| ART resistance testing (Visible Genetics or ABI) | $500 |
| MT-2 tropism (SI/NSI) | $50 |
| Co-receptor usage of HIV isolates | $100 |
Other
| Specialized or modified assays to be arranged | negotiated |
Costs are based on low volume testing and may decrease with higher volume.