Expanding Insights: Harnessing Expansion Microscopy for Super-Resolution Analysis of HIV-1-Cell Interactions.

Expansion microscopy has recently emerged as an alternative technique for achieving high-resolution imaging of biological structures. Improvements in resolution are achieved by physically expanding samples through embedding in a swellable hydrogel before microscopy. However, expansion microscopy has been rarely used in the field of virology.

Identification of adeno-associated virus variants for gene transfer into human neural cell types by parallel capsid screening.

Human brain cells generated by in vitro cell programming provide exciting prospects for disease modeling, drug discovery and cell therapy. These applications frequently require efficient and clinically compliant tools for genetic modification of the cells. Recombinant adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) fulfill these prerequisites for a number of reasons, including the availability of a myriad of AAV capsid variants with distinct cell type specificity (also called tropism).

Generation of Human Lung Organoid Cultures from Healthy and Tumor Tissue to Study Infectious Diseases.

Respiratory viruses cause mild to severe diseases in humans every year, constituting a major public health problem. Characterizing the pathogenesis in physiologically relevant models is crucial for developing efficient vaccines and therapeutics. Here, we show that lung organoids derived from human primary or lung tumor tissue maintain the cellular composition and characteristics of the original tissue.

Single-Use Capture Purification of Adeno-Associated Viral Gene Transfer Vectors by Membrane-Based Steric Exclusion Chromatography.

We present membrane-based steric exclusion chromatography (SXC) as a universal capture step for purification of adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene transfer vectors independent of their serotype and surface characteristics. SXC is performed by mixing an unpurified cell culture supernatant containing AAV particles with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and feeding the mixture onto a chromatography filter unit. The purified AAV particles are recovered by flushing the unit with a solution lacking PEG.

SARS-CoV-2 RNA Extraction Using Magnetic Beads for Rapid Large-Scale Testing by RT-qPCR and RT-LAMP.

Rapid large-scale testing is essential for controlling the ongoing pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The standard diagnostic pipeline for testing SARS-CoV-2 presence in patients with an ongoing infection is predominantly based on pharyngeal swabs, from which the viral RNA is extracted using commercial kits, followed by reverse transcription and quantitative PCR detection. As a result of the large demand for testing, commercial RNA extraction kits may be limited and, alternatively, non-commercial protocols are needed.