Virapur adds laboratory capacity for large scale growth of influenza virus in embryonated chicken eggs, expanding the number of live viruses it can produce and purify. "There is increased interest in obtaining high titer, purified influenza viruses, and the production of recent vaccine strains in eggs is a critical need in the research and diagnostic communities," said Marylou Gibson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Virapur.
Influenza virus culture of recently identified strains is sometimes limited to eggs, but egg culture takes skill and special laboratory facilities to accomplish successfully. Experienced staff attained ten-fold higher production levels in egg culture than tissue culture for two of the recent flu strains, Wisconsin and Solomon.
Virapur grows and purifies a host of human and animal viruses, as well as bacterial phage and toxins. Clients include diagnostic, pharmaceutical and research organizations interested in high quality viral reagents. The company has produced live biological reagents since 2000, and was the innovator of the original viral purification kits. Kits are sold on their website, www.virapur.com.
