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.
Main Areas of Focus
Analysis and processing of virus-related samples, including the following:
- Blood and its individual components
- Tissues
- Cells
- Isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC)
- Body fluids
- Swabs (oral, nasal, rectal, and wound)
- Sputum and bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL) samples
Capabilities and Specialized Equipment
- Animal blood, body fluid, and tissue processing
- Bead mill homogenizer
- Hematology analyzer
- Clinical chemistry analyzer
- Coagulation analyzer
- DNA, RNA, and protein analysis
- Nucleic acid extractions
- Quantitative and qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
- Magnetic bead-based extraction robot
- Plaque assays
- Microbial detection system
- Bacteriology testing
- Quality control testing of cell lines and viral stocks
- Cell culture
- Fully automated image-based cell analyzer
- Endotoxin testing system
- Mycoplasma testing
- Inventory maintenance of over 150 cell lines
Location
Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick)
Contact Information
Travis K. Warren, Ph.D.
Operations Director (Contractor)
Cristal Johnson
Clinical Laboratory and Assay Development Scientist (Contractor)
IRF-Frederick
Standards
All procedures are well-documented and adhere to standard operating procedures (SOPs), methods, or study-approved plans and agreements.
Collaboration Opportunities
- Studies relevant to human disease
- Use of surrogate systems to test clinical hypotheses
- Use of biological systems to answer questions regarding disease pathogenesis and strategies for intervention including antimicrobials, vaccines, and other countermeasures
- Developing and incorporating cutting-edge technologies to understand infectious diseases
Read more about how to work with the IRF-Frederick.