Methods
The junior research group’s expertise coupled to the institute first-in-class scientific infrastructures offers the unique opportunity to apply highly integrative technologies to study arbovirus-host interactions from a truly systematic standpoint.
Molecular biology & high-containment laboratories
BSL-2 laboratories allow working with genetically modified organisms at different levels. Routine work includes forward and reverse mutagenesis on infectious cDNA clones of multiple viruses, lentivirus-based genetic modification of human cell lines, infection experiments with BSL-2-grade viral pathogens as well as ex vivo material.
Furthermore BSL-3+ laboratories allow experimentation both in vitro and in vivo with multiple highly pathogenic arbovirus isolates and molecular clones.
Mass spectrometry
We have direct “hands-on” access to a last generation mass spectrometry platform (timsTOFpro analyzer coupled to a nanoElute UHPLC system), which gives us the opportunity to perform unbiased large scale screening profiling as well as targeted hypothesis-driven experiments including testing protein-protein interactions, protein expression profiling, studying protein dynamics as well as post-translational modifications.
Additional methods
- Biochemical assays for protein-protein interaction, PTMs and protein abundance
- BRET (Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer)
- Electron-Microscopy (EM) and CLEM (Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy)
- Fluorescence Microscopy (Spinning and Scanning Confocal Microscopy)
- quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)
- Standard methods of molecular biology and biochemistry
- Standard methods of virology
- Mouse models to study pathogenicity (Biosafety levels 2 and 3)