Reverse Genetics Systems For Virus Production
By far the most common method for producing virus stocks used in virology R&D and manufacturing worldwide is to serially passage existing virus stocks in laboratory-grown host cell cultures. This method is simple and efficient, but critically flawed. The very high mutation rate of viruses, particularly RNA viruses, results in adaptation of serially-passaged virus stocks to laboratory growth conditions. Consequently, the parental virus strain in the passaged virus stocks can be quickly overtaken by heavily mutated variants that are genetically and phenotypically different from the original, naturally circulating parental virus, including in antiginicity, tropism and virulence.
A primary goal of virology R&D is to understand viruses as they occur in nature, in order to develop vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics against them. Yet a huge number of laboratories and companies still rely entirely on mutated, laboratory-adapted strains to conduct their studies because ready access to authentic, parental viruses is unavailable in the marketplace. Using serial passaging methods to generate virus stocks also increases variability between production lots due to the random, uncontrolled nature of virus adaptation and mutation during the passaging process, including the generation of defective interfering particles that are difficult to detect but can severely compromise experiments and products. As a result, significant time and capital are wasted generating unreliable, unreproducible data from virus strains fundamentally different from the wild-type strains circulating in nature. This is a crisis in virology.
Advanced Virology offers an effective solution to this crisis. We use advanced reverse genetics technology to manufacture our virus stocks de novo without serial passaging. This ensures that the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of the manufactured virus stocks are completely consistent and representative of naturally occurring virus populations. Our authentic, validated viruses and derivative products will dramatically enhance the accuracy and reproducibility of virology research around the world and fuel the discovery of next-generation vaccines, antivirals, and diagnostics.
By using cutting-edge reverse genetics systems to manufacture high fidelity virus products, Advanced Virology will significantly increase the quality and diversity of virus products available in the marketplace. We respond faster to new developments such as the emergence of novel viral variants (e.g., during pandemic outbreaks) by supplying authentic virus stocks to speed up the development of downstream products. Furthermore, the reverse genetics approach allows us to provide novel types of products and services not currently available in the marketplace, including reporter protein-expressing viruses, molecularly tagged viruses and custom mutants. We believe our products will greatly expand the experimental capabilites of virology labs around the world.
Why Advanced Virology?
