L3 Bank
Milan Trpis reports that there are currently about 5,000
viable L3 in the bank collected by Bob Struble and the New York Blood Center.
Because of political strife in Liberia, a problem with the liquid nitrogen
occurred, and many of the L3 from one shipment were fractionated. It is
hoped that these L3 can at least be used for antigen preparations. Since
the political problems in Liberia have intensified, L3 collecting has come
to a halt and the OTF is currently investigating other collection sites.
Possibilities include Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. Unfortunately, until
collection is able to begin again, we will need to be very careful about
giving away L3's, particularly since some must be reserved for the vaccine
trials.
EMCF Onchocerciasis Serum bank
The EMCF has contracted with Niggi
Weiss at the Swiss Tropical Institute to maintain a bank of sera collected
from different groups of individuals in various onchocerca-endemic regions
(see Greene Sheet #1). Niggi's group will test the sera for HIV and hepatitis;
those sera which prove to have neither of these infections will be aliquoted
into 200 _l aliquots and frozen at -700C. Currently, the only sera in the
newly formed bank are those collected by Tom Nutman, Lynne Elson and Ron
Guderian in Ecuador. There are currently 24 infected and 33 putatively
immune sera in this collection. Sera or an update of bank contents may
be obtained by writing Cathy Steel, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, Bldg.
4, Rm. 126, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda,
Maryland 20892, USA; phone #301-496-5398, FAX #301-480-3757. Eventually,
a sera request form will be made available, similiar to the one now available
for L3's. Shipments to the bank in the future will include sera from Guatemala
(already collected from Victor Tsang and colleagues) and Ghana (to be collected
by Eric Ottesen, Cathy Steel and Kwablah Awadzi). According to "bank
president" Niggi Weiss, the serum bank will officially open on April
1st.
TDR Filariasis Serum Bank
TDR/FIL has had a serum bank in operation
for about 10 years with the trusty banking facilities again being at the
Swiss Tropical institute and overseen by Niggi Weiss. Currently, there
are about 300 human sera from patients with various filarial infections
and 50 sera from cattle or dogs with filarial infections. Specimens are
available from this TDR bank for any aspect of serologic research on filariasis.
Dr. Weiss can be contacted directly at the Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse
57, CH 4002 Basel, Switzerland; FAX# (41) 61-271-8654; Ph# (41) 61-284-8111.
For specimens from the EMCF Onchocerciasis Serum Bank (see above) DO
NOT contact Niggi Weiss directly; make requests instead through Cathy Steel.
Reagent shipments
It is extremely important that shipments of antigens
and/or antibodies being shipped to any of the vaccine test laboratories
(either to David Abraham, Richard Lucius, or Rocky Tuan) be shipped by carrier
and not simply sent through an airline. Investigators shipping to these
laboratories from other countries should also obtain all of the necessary
shipping information (airway bill numbers, etc.) and relate this to David,
Richard, or Rocky by phone or FAX. In addition, for customs purposes (if
shipping either into the U.S. or Germany), packages should be labeled very
specifically. Richard has requested that packages being sent to him be
labeled in the following manner: "Purified proteins of worms Onchocerca
volvulus for research purposes (no commercial value)". Packages
for David should be labeled in a similiar manner.