English
SpanishImmunology Core
The Immunology Core will provide the infrastructure necessary for the characterization of the innate and adaptive immune responses to infectious agents (viruses, bacteria and their products) and standardized testing for potential vaccine candidates, including proteins produced within the Biological Molecule Production Core of the NEIDL. The Immunology Core will also serve as a facilitator between the Boston University Transgenic Core and the NEIDL in order to provide transgenic and mutant mice for investigators to enhance their ability to characterize immune responses to pathogens, and elucidate how pathogens may suppress normal immune responses during infections.
Under most circumstances the Immunology Core will concentrate on analysis of specimens obtained from animals challenged with agents requiring BSL3 or BSL4 containment. The Immunology Core will provide four essential services to allow investigators to monitor both in vivo and in vitro immune responses:
- basic cell enumeration and separation services for human and animal cells using magnetic separation, as well as cell subset identification by flow cytometry in high containment (BSL3 and BLS4).
- elucidation of cytokine profiles of responding cells by flow cytometry, and cytokine production in serum and in culture by BioPlex analysis.
- antibody assays (for identifying antibodies of defined specificity and isotype analysis) by ELISA, ELISPOT for enumerating antibody producing cells, and neutralizing antibodies using automated plaque and colony counting assays.
- consultation services and help in developing other immunological assays as needed by investigators in the NEIDL Institute. For example, the Immunology Core will help investigators develop the ability to monitor cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells to infected populations. In addition, the Immunology Core will provide the opportunity to study changes in surface antigen expression in both human and other animal cells that have interacted with or been infected by various pathogens, including quantitation of cell surface class I and class II proteins of the major histocompatibility complex.
Because reagents may be lacking for the identification, quantitation and characterization of many of the pathogens that may be studied, the Immunology Core may help establish a monoclonal antibody production facility. Production facilities will be present in conventional BSL-2 space for generating mononclonal antibodies against recombinant or purified proteins, as well as peptides conjugated to protein carriers as required by faculty in the NEIDL.
