Laboratory Core

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The Laboratory Core provides coordinated, integrated laboratory testing to facilitate each Project and the Clinical Core. Work will be performed at 3 laboratories that are part of the University of Washington Virology Division. The UW Virology Section at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center ("UW-CHRMC") provides HSV culture, HSV-1 and HSV-2 serology, and HIV-1 serology. The Molecular Virology Laboratory recently moved to a large integrated laboratory devoted entirely to molecular diagnostics for viral disease at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at 1616 Eastlake, adjacent to Dr. Corey's office at FHCRC. Staff at this location ("PCR-FHCRC") will provide quantitative, real-time, high throughput viral DMA testing for HSV-1, HSV-2 and HIV-1. The HSV Western blot serology and the HSV real-time PCR for HSV DNA detection are state-of-the art tests that were developed in previous years of this Program Project. A rapid, easily performed adaptation of the HSV PCR has been developed over the past 3 years to test for the presence of HSV in the birth canal of pregnant women at labor and delivery. This test is both accurate and rapid and has proven in early validation trials to be performed effectively by staff in a general use, hospitalbased Microbiology Laboratory with results comparable to those achieved in the PCR-FHCRC lab. A major goal of the Laboratory Core is to finalize the parameters for the rapid HSV PCR and to successfully complete the transfer of this test to the UW Microbiology lab for routine use among women entering the labor and delivery suite at the University of Washington Hospital. Our program will develop quality control protocols for the rapid HSV PCR and will provide monitoring and proficiency testing services to assure continued high performance of this test to meet the requirements of Project 2. The third laboratory involved in this Core is Dr. David Koelle's research lab at the FHCRC 1616 Eastlake building. The Koelle lab will perform strain typing for HSV-1 and HSV-2 from either mucosal samples or from viral culture isolates from patients enrolled in Projects 1, 2, and the Clinical Core. This group has unique expertise to provide the most powerful available techniques to detect and identify epidemiologically linked HSV strains. This lab's PCR-based methods maximize sensitivity for minor differences in HSV DNA sequence and also can be applied directly to patient samples thus avoiding the risk of minor mutations developing during viral amplification in culture. The sequencing techniques are continually being refined and have promise for delineating the pace and process of HSV genetic changes, within patients or following transmission, that might affect the natural history of herpes infections. Laboratory Core activities are directed by Larry Corey MD, Rhoda Morrow PhD, David Koelle MD, and MeeiLi Huang, Ph.D; all are internationally recognized for their contributions to developing unique lab tests for HSV and HIV.