High Containment Biological Safety Laboratory

The High Containment Biological Safety Laboratory Core seeks to serve the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and surrounding research communities by enabling access to experimentation with high containment pathogens in a safe and compliant environment through investigator partnerships and integration of innovative research protocols.

Services Offered

Neutralizing Titer 100: This assay determines the titer of serum antibody required to neutralize 100% of virus in a sample. Currently we are running this assay for SARS-COV-2 using serum or plasma samples. However, this assay can be adapted to other sample types and viruses upon inquiry.
Neutralizing Titer 50: This assay is conducted in the same fashion as the Neutralizing Titer 100 assay, but the read out is the titer of antibody that blocks 50% of infection. This assay should be used when a more precise determination of differences between samples might be required. Please inquire with laboratory staff if this assay may be right for your research project.
Tissue Culture Infectious Dose 50 (TCID50): The TCID50 assay is designed to quantitate viruses in either stocks or research samples that do not plaque well on monolayers. We are currently using this assay to quantitate SARS-CoV-2 stocks and research samples. You may be interested in this assay if you are looking to determine the effect of a specific treatment on viral growth.
Viral Plaque Assay: The plaque assay is a tried and true method to quantitate viral stocks as well as the amount of virus in a specific research sample for those virus that plaque well on monolayers such as West Nile Virus, Zika virus, etc….
Viral Growth Kinetics: This assay incorporates either TCID50 or plaque assays to follow the growth of virus over time in a specific culture. This assay offers a more in depth look at virus replication in the presence of anti-viral therapies.
Viral Infectivity Assay: An infectivity assay is often used to determine if a certain cell line or primary cell is susceptible to infection. This may be used to determine viral receptors/alternative receptors, or to infect known permissible cells in a system that will allow fixation and subsequent microscopy.
BSL3 Hourly Usage: An hourly usage charge can be used to design experimentation by facility personnel that does not fit the above assays. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have a custom experiment you would like to discuss, or if you would like to inquire about any of the above services.

Contacts

Jason Larabee
Associate Director of the High Containment Biological Safety Laboratory
Jason-Larabee@ouhsc.edu
(405) 271-3393

Arto S. Baghdayan
Laboratory Manager of the High Containment Biological Safety Laboratory
Arto-Baghdayan@ouhsc.edu
(405) 271-3393

Location

Institutional Research Core Facility

975 NE 10th Street, BRC1106

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Oklahoma City, OK 73104

405-271-2337

Publication Acknowledgement

If research supported by this facility results in publication, we would really appreciate if you acknowledge this support by including the following in your publication(s):

"We thank the Institutional Research Core Facility at OUHSC for the use of the Core Facility which provided __________ service."