Research Facilities
World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses (WRCEVA)
The WRCEVA at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) serves as a virus reference center for the world. The collection includes almost 5,000 viral isolates. Any zoonotic virus suspected of being biologically transmitted by arthropods or vertebrates is accepted for identification and characterization.
Since 1971, the World Reference Center has been supported by grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health. Since 1995, the University of Texas has also provided extensive in-house support to the Reference Center. Dr. Robert Tesh, Professor of Pathology and a member of the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, is the current director of the WRCEVA.
The WRCEVA provides prompt analysis of disease outbreaks as well as identification of new and emerging viruses to agencies around the world; it also serves the world research community with basic certification of arboviruses and arboviral reagents. The extensive arbovirus reference collection maintained at the Center differs from culture collections like that of the American Type Culture Collection in several ways. First, our collection is not static; new virus strains are continually being archived. Second, instead of having just one or two prototype or well characterized strains of each known virus, we have many different strains of arboviruses of medical and veterinary importance (i.e. dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile, eastern equine encephalitis, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis). A number of viruses in the collection are select agents. An effort has been made to collect representative strains of these viruses from a variety of sources, geographic localities and time periods. This diversity has proven extremely useful in studies of arbovirus emergence, evolution, pathogenesis, and now biodefense. Third, viruses and serologic reagents are provided at no cost upon request to qualified investigators; this is essential for maintaining an active reference collection, since collaborators often send us new viruses in return for this service.
GNL Facilities
The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded, high and maximum-containment facility was dedicated on the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) campus November 11, 2008. The GNL serves as a national resource in support of NIH’s biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research agenda and stands ready to assist local, state and national public health efforts in the event of a public health emergency.
The GNL provides BSL-4, BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratories designed to allow the safe conduct of research into emerging infectious diseases and agents of bioterrorism for the purpose of developing vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics against them. The 7-story GNL and the adjacent Keiller Building together offer 14,330 square feet of BSL-4 space, 29,713 square feet of BSL-3 facilities and 51,903 square feet for BSL-2 level laboratories. Additionally, there are ~10, 000 square feet of ABSL-3 space including insectaries at both the BSL-2 and -3 levels, and BSL-3 and BSL-4 aerobiology facilities.
The GNL’s mission is fulfilled through a system of specialized research cores providing the following services: aerosolization studies of BSL-3 and -4 level pathogens in small animals and non-human primates; animal model development; host-pathogen studies; vaccine, diagnostics and therapeutics testing; screening methodology development through in vitro studies; technical assistance in histological and tissue processing methods; and diagnostic expertise in the event of disease outbreaks or bioterrorism. The GNL also provides a national resource for studying and developing protocols against arthropod vectors; state-of-the-art equipment, particularly that available via an Imaging Core having expertise in the analysis of human and animal tissues and in vivo whole-animal imaging; plus a full-service immunology core, in which knockout and transgenic mouse models are developed for immunological studies. A number of other cores provide administrative and regulatory (GLP) oversight, as well as ensure security, safety and efficient operation of the GNL. In addition, the GNL features full-service animal care procedural and maintenance facilities, including laminar flow isolator caging systems, sterilization equipment, procedure rooms, cage-washing and autoclaving.
In addition to standard light and fluorescence microscopy, the GNL offers a range of specialized imaging equipment, including –combined confocal and multiphoton microscopy imaging systems at the BSL-2 and BSL-3 levels for molecular imaging of thick specimens and intravital microscopy, an IVIS 200 system for in vivo small animal molecular optical imaging, a microPET/CT whole animal imaging system, digital X-ray, and ultrasound equipment. The GNL also has a full complement of gel imaging capabilities as well as a traditional X-ray film processor. In addition, the campus has in situ confocal microscopy and endoscopic optical coherence tomography equipment.
Other major items of equipment available in the GNL include a Tecan robotic liquid handling system and other robotics instruments for assay development, a full complement of thermalcyclers, including RT-PCR machines, a BSL4 level flow cytometer and a BSL3 level fluorescence activated cell sorter. There is also a fully equipped histopathology suite, ultra-, super-, and low-speed centrifuges; and glassware washing and sterilization equipment.
In addition, there are aerosol challenge facilities allowing the safe study of inhaled viral and bacterial pathogens. The Aerobiology Core features Madison chamber units as well as equipment to facilitate nose-only exposure
UTMB is a registered select agent facility for CDC, USDA and overlap agents and the University has an existing safety program that is in accordance with appropriate Federal, State, and local regulations for research performed safely under BSL-2, BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratory conditions.
Other University Facilities
UTMB has created additional core facilities that provide essential interdisciplinary coordination of research activities. There are fully staffed core laboratories that supply oligonucleotides, synthetic peptides, HPLC separation and analysis, monoclonal antibodies, protein sequencing, and a transgenic mouse facility. The Sealy Center for Structural Biology (SCSB) is another major resource. The SCSB is comprised of six instrumentation and resource centers: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray, Computer, Macromolecular Assembly, Bioinformatics and the Protein Expression Laboratory. The Office of Biostatistics has primary responsibility for providing statistical support services on campus. The UTMB Office of Environmental Health and Safety routinely inspects our BSL-2 and 3 facilities to insure worker safety and adherence to established procedures. Dedicated facilities available to researchers in the Keiller Building include: a new, 6,550 sq. ft. animal biosafety level 2 and 3 facility; a 750 sq. ft. level 2 arthropod containment facility; an Electron Microscopy Laboratory, equipped with a Philips 525M scanning microscope and two Philips transmission electron microscopes (DM 100 and 201), two ultramicrotomes; and equipment and reagents for tissue preparation. Other core laboratories have cryotomes for frozen sections; Meridian Insight confocal microscope and digital image analyses system; a Coulter Epics C fluorescence activated cell sorter; a Perkin Elmer automated DNA sequencer; an ABI Prism 7700 Sequence Detection System; a darkroom equipped with an X-Ray film developer; a Packard instant imaging System; a Silicon Graphics indigo graphics work station; a Scanalytics benchtop plus canner densitometer; a Strategene Eagle Eye II still video system; work station for nucleotide sequence analyses; a Beckman Biomek 2000 system for robotic PCR for high throughout; and a Dynatech MRX automated plate reader with computer.
Other major equipment available to the investigators for virus studies in their laboratories in the Keiller Building include ultra- and superspeed centrifuges, table top low speed centrifuges, microfuges, large refrigerators, a chromatography cabinet, ultralow –80oC freezers, regular –20oC freezers, biological safety cabinets, thermal cyclers, inverted and standard microscopes and a fluorescent microscope with photographic capabilities, chemical hoods, CO2 tissue culture incubators, numerous power supplies of various capacities, water baths and shakers, dark room with automatic developing equipment, a variety of equipment for the electrophoretic analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins, Coulter Counter, scintillation and gamma counters, liquid nitrogen freezers, and glassware washing and sterilization equipment.
The Annual Departmental Research Day is one of the highlights of our year when EPGP students and postdoctoral fellows present their research as posters. These are each judged by three faculty members. Monetary awards are given to 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in different categories (eg. Basic research, Applied research etc). The cost of the room, poster boards and lunch are all paid for by the Department but prizes are based on donations from the faculty and a $1500 donation from the Center for Biodefence.. An EPGP Graduate Student Organization (GSO) is provided with $500-1000 per year to run activities that for example promote informal student-faculty interactions (with approval from the Departmental administration).