Core 2: Biocontainment and Immune Monitoring Core

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Core 2: Biocontainment and Immune Monitoring Abstract The overall goal of this program is to develop a vaccine or vaccines that will be available when the next betaCoV outbreak occurs. In support of this overall goal, a Biocontainment and Immune Monitoring Core has been centralized at Duke. The Core is comprised of technologies and services offered through the Duke Regional Biocontanment Laboratory (Duke RBL), the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting facility, and the Montefiori and Ferrari antibody characterization laboratories. The Duke RBL is one of 12 NIH-constructed RBLs, and was the first to begin operation in 2007. The Duke RBL provides an administrative umbrella for safe, secure and compliant BSL2-3/ABSL2-3 and Select Agent research activities at Duke University. The Duke RBL has state-of-the-art BSL3 biocontainment laboratory modules, high- containment cell sorting, a portfolio of service units (i. e. Microbiology, Virology, Immunology and Animal Models Support), an integrated ABSL3 vivarium to support small animal challenge models, and was purpose built to support the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for emerging/reemerging infections and biodefense. The Core will routinely provide program investigators with high-containment cell sorting and comprehensive phenotyping, multiplex biomarker profiling, viral load, neutralization and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity assays, and small animal SARS-CoV-2 challenge models. Critical to all five Core Aims/Tasks is a commitment to ongoing quality control of instruments and assays; and a strong commitment to anticipate and meet the needs of all four projects and the NHP Core. By educating and working in collaboration with program investigators we will optimize assays to meet their needs and more effectively utilize the state-of-the-art instrumentation and biocontainment facilities available through the Biocontaniment and Immune Monitoring Core. Comprehensive and centralized immune monitoring by a team with a proven track-record will add value to all proposed studies, and will allow project investigators to better, and more efficiently, design and develop panbetaCoV vaccines.