The creation of a Virology Core for the CFAR will provide investigators with a state-of-the-art facility that will have the capability and capacity to perform all aspects of HIV virology testing. The overall goals of the Virology Core will be to provide laboratory assistance to investigators requiring sophisticated protocols for assessing virologic endpoints to therapy, to provide expert assistance for the interpretation of results to clinicians involved in the care of patients with HIV infection, and to provide instruction and technical advice to researchers who are interested in developing sophisticated virologic procedures for their HIV projects. Specifically, the Virology Core will: (1) receive, process, and test plasma or serum, PBMC, tissues, secretions and excretions from patients with HIV; (2) isolated and propagate HIV from these samples; (3) perform HIV-specific diagnostic assays for measurement of viral or surrogate markers using biochemical, immunologic, and molecular approaches; (4) perform gene ampliation techniques to assist in the detection of HIV-specific RNA or proviral DNA from clinical specimens using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodology; (5) evaluate drug susceptibility of HIV isolates; and (6) serve as a repository for the long-term storage of clinical specimens from adults infected with HIV and maintain a computerized freezer storage and tracking program so that such specimens will be available for subsequent research programs.
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