The core services team provides cell culture, hematology, hemostasis, clinical chemistry, microbiology, and molecular virology support for infectious disease studies at the IRF-Frederick. The team has the ability to perform pre-screening assessment by having parallel setups of clinical analyzers in biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) and BSL-2. In addition, the team processes a high volume of study samples and maintains a repository from which it provides experimental samples to other groups within the facility for downstream analysis.

Developing, characterizing, and refining animal models rely on sophisticated medical imaging equipment; aerosol capabilities; and virology, pathology, molecular biology, and immunology expertise. Animal models are key to advancing medical countermeasures for high-consequence pathogens and often provide the only opportunity to gain critical insights and develop clinical algorithms for effectively managing patients or establishing a regulatory pathway for product licensure.

The aerobiology team develops aerosol animal models of disease caused by high-consequence pathogens. Using advanced inhalational technologies, this team provides high experimental reproducibility to ensure the best modeling possible. Aerosolization procedures are fine-tuned to achieve accurate and precise dosimetry. All work with high-consequence pathogens is conducted within animal biosafety level 4 (ABSL-4) containment laboratories at the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF‑Frederick).