In vitro testing
- Virus production and purification
- Functional testing of substances in cell-based infection assays against different viruses (e.g., RSV, SARS-CoV-2, HSV-1 and HSV-2, influenza) and determination of IC50
- Cytotoxicity analysis and determination of CC50
- Transfection and transduction
- Establishing new assays
In vivo testing
- Analysis of vaccines and antivirals in established in vivo mouse infection models: HSV, SARS-CoV-2, RSV and Flaviviruses under BSL-2 and BSL-3 conditions
- Tumor models in immunodeficient NSG-mice (e.g., orthotopic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC))
- Analyses:
- Viral load using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
- Quantification of infectious virus in different organs
- Histopathology and immunohistochemistry
- Analysis of humoral immune response using ELISA and virus neutralization assays
- Cytokine analysis
- In vivo bioluminescence analysis
- Immune cell composition using flow cytometry
- Establishing new in vivo models
- Designing animal experiments
- Writing applications for conducting animal experiments
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI