The Virus and Reservoirs Core provides comprehensive Viral and Molecular support to serve the needs of Penn/Wistar/CHOP investigators in the area of basic, translational, and clinical HIV research. In addition to offering standard services, we are available to develop customized viral and molecular support services as needed in collaboration with CFAR investigators, training for new personnel, and consultation, training, and mentoring as needed.

Virology Support Services include a virus repository stocked with a wide range of primary, prototype, and mutant virus strains; services for the isolation, phenotyping, and genetic analysis of primary viruses from patient-derived tissues; HIV-1 p24 and SIV p27 Gag antigen quantification; an HIV-1 viral load assay suitable for research purposes that detects all virus clades, and a variety of related reagents, services, and consultative support.

Molecular Support Services include support for quantitative real-time PCR with a 7500FAST machine, droplet digital PCR with the RainDrop machine, optimized HIV and cellular primer/probe sets and reagents; support for primer design and analysis of custom targets; target quantification on a customized basis; and related services.

Single Genome Amplification Services include consultation and hands-on training for investigators who are interested in amplifying single templates of their pathogen (e.g., HIV/SIV, HCV, Plasmodium, bacteria) of interest without the risk of PCR artifacts. This service is offered by Dr. Frederic Bibollet-Ruche and Dr. Beatrice Hahn.

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