Department of Influenza and Respiratory Viruses

The Laboratory of Influenza Research was established in order to conduct research, prepare and develop a suitable vaccine and other related projects with three official personnel having PhD in virology, PhD and BSc in laboratory science. Standard strains were obtained from NIBSC with several years of follow-up. These strains were reproduced in embryonated eggs and MDCK cell.
 

Activities in progress

1. Virus culture in embryonated eggs and cell
2. Extraction of viral proteins and evaluation of their immunization in various formulations
3. Heterogeneous setting of local isolates using molecular methods
4. Molecular detection of virus in patient samples
5. Cloning of viral proteins in expression systems
6. Studies of subunit vaccines and genes
7. Molecular studies of drug resistance and strategies to deal with it (siRNA)
8. Virus irezumi production as immunomodulating adjuvant
9. Efficacy of current vaccines
10. Serological survey of avian influenza outbreak
11. To conduct research courses and summer schools

Future activities

1. This laboratory is ready to diagnose any emerging and reemerging respiratory virus as the lab is equipped with biological hoods of class II and III.
2. Optimization of mass culture of virus
3. Evaluation and purification of recombinant proteins of virus
   • One-dimensional and two-dimensional electrophoresis
   • Purification using different columns
   • Immunoblotting and ELISA, Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and SRID
   • Evaluation of glycosylation by the blotting enzymatic and device methods
   • Sugar and protein engineering
4. To evaluate the potential of siRNA compounds in the inhibition of virus replication and its toxicity in cell culture and animal model

Image	Name	Degree	Position
	Fatemeh Fotouhi	PhD in Virology	Head of Laboratory of Influenza Research- Assistant Professor
	Abbas Jamali	PhD in Virology	Assistant Professor
	Behrokh Farahmand	PhD in Genetics	Assistant Professor
	Amir Ghaemi	Ph.D. in Molecular virology	Assistant Professor
	Parvaneh Mehrbod	Ph.D. in Molecular Biotechnology	Assistant Professor