Virus
Virus
Bacteria
Fungi
Virus cultivation and isolation are important techniques and foundations in virological research. Obtaining sufficient research materials through virus cultivation can help researchers understand the biological characteristics of viruses and their interactions with host cells, as well as identify possible prevention and treatment methods. However, virus cultivation presents many difficulties. Since viruses are obligate intracellular parasites and lack the ability to replicate and survive independently, they must rely on host cells for replication and proliferation. Researchers must select appropriate cell lines, chicken embryos, or animals for inoculation and provide adequate nutrition and environment to ensure the growth and proliferation of cells and viruses. Ultimately, the virus is collected from the culture supernatant or cells, and subsequently subjected to identification and purification processes. The entire process depends on the expertise and experience of laboratory personnel who must exercise strict control over laboratory conditions to prevent cross-contamination, ensure the quality of materials, and safeguard against the risk of virus leakage and harm to personnel. The NIDB Virus Bank has extensive experience in virus cultivation and provides various important human virus strains for distribution, as well as virus propagation services to meet the needs of academia and industry.
Virus identification is a crucial technique that is frequently employed in medicine to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Virus identification techniques have evolved over time. While traditional methods like immunology (ELISA, IFA, Western Blot), electron microscopy, and PCR were once relied upon, more modern approaches such as rapid screening assays, RT-qPCR, and metagenomics have been developed. Thanks to these advancements, laboratory personnel can now determine the species, quantity, and infectivity of pathogens with greater accuracy, as well as their distribution within the sample. The NIDB virus bank also employs a range of immunological and molecular biology techniques to test the viruses we produced to ensure the accuracy of the biological materials provided to various academic and industrial units.
Pseudovirus is a well-established method in virology for studying highly pathogenic viruses. One of these techniques uses lentiviral vectors derived from the HIV packaging systems to create a replication-defective virus harboring/encoding non-self protein(s). The replication defect property of pseudoviruses makes it safe to handle in BSL-2 labs. The NIDB Virus Bank provides high-titer pseudoviruses using lentiviral vectors to support future virus-related research, including but not limited to studying virus entry, tropism, antibody detection, and vaccine development.
NIDB collects and stores important drug-resistant bacterial strains of Taiwan. Isolates are subjected to identification, and testing and analysis of drug resistance. Experiments in microbiology, molecular biology, and genomics are additionally performed.
The Mycological Resource Bank collects various locally important yeast and filamentous fungal isolates and equipped with knowledge and skills on the following fungi experiments, including fungal culture, species identification of fungal isolates, detection of fungi from clinical and environmental samples, antifungal susceptibility testing using the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) method, antifungal activity testing of novel drugs or compounds, molecular mechanisms of antifungal resistance, genetic relatedness analyses, the zebrafish egg bath infection model, etc.
Nanopore sequencing, developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) in the UK, is a third-generation DNA sequencing technology. It works by passing DNA fragments through nanoscale pores while detecting changes in electrical current to determine the nucleotide sequence in real time. Compared to conventional sequencing methods, ONT nanopore sequencing provides significant advantages: ultra-long read lengths, real-time data output, speed, high throughput, and independence from sequence composition such as GC bias. These features make it especially powerful for whole-genome sequencing of pathogens, structural variant detection, and resolving complex genomic regions. With its flexibility and scalability, nanopore sequencing enables researchers to obtain essential genomic insights more efficiently and cost-effectively, driving advances in clinical diagnostics, epidemic surveillance, and public health research.
Mouse models are very useful tools for both studying the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the preclinical evaluation of vaccines and therapies against different human pathogens. The use of genetically modified inbred mouse strains has allowed the research scientists to define the role of specific host genes in either controlling or promoting disease, and evaluate the efficacy of the potential bioactive agents to against infectious pathogens.
