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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the most common cause of infectious mononucleosis and is associated with nearly 200,000 cancers and 140,000 deaths each year. EBV-associated cancers include Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Burkitt B cell lymphoma, and EBV post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease. The latent reservoir for EBV in the body is the B lymphocyte. Thus, blocking B cell infection is important for reducing EBV-related disease.

RSV is the most important viral agent of severe respiratory disease in infants and young children worldwide and also causes substantial morbidity and mortality in older adults. RSV is estimated to cause more than 33 million lower respiratory tract illnesses, three million hospitalizations, and nearly 200,000 childhood deaths worldwide annually, with many deaths occurring in developing countries. However, despite the prevalence of RSV and the dangers associated with infection, no RSV vaccine has been successfully developed to date.

SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in a global pandemic, sparking urgent vaccine development efforts. The trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike stabilized in its prefusion conformation by the addition of 2 proline mutations (“SARS-CoV-2 S2P”) is the antigenic basis of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that are currently authorized for use in the United States.

Vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are increasingly available under emergency use authorizations; however, indications are currently limited to individuals twelve (12) years or older. They also involve intramuscular immunization, which does not directly stimulate local immunity in the respiratory tract, the primary site of SARS-CoV-2 infection, shedding and spread. While the major burden of COVID-19 disease is in adults, infection and disease also occur in infants and young children, contributing to viral transmission.

Quantitative polymerase chain reactions (qPCRs) are commonly employed to enumerate genes of interest among particular biological samples. Insertion of PCR amplicons into plasmid DNA is a mainstay for creation of known quantities of target sequences to standardize quantitative PCRs. Typically, one amplicon is inserted into one plasmid construct, the plasmid is then amplified, purified, serially diluted, and then quantified to be used to enumerate target sequences in unknown samples.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) continues to be the leading viral cause of severe acute lower respiratory tract disease in infants and children worldwide, and also is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. A licensed vaccine or antiviral drug suitable for routine use remains unavailable. This invention relates to the use of murine pneumonia virus (MPV—previously known as pneumonia virus of mice, PVM—of family Pneumovirida e) as a vaccine vector expressing the RSV fusion protein F, the most important protective antigen of RSV.

Worldwide, 130-150 million individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), a major cause of liver-associated morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite recent advances in antiviral drugs that can cure some individuals, a rapid decline of the global disease burden is hampered by remarkably high treatment costs and a high number of undiagnosed infections. Moreover, a significant number of patients develop resistance and additional treatment modalities may be needed to dramatically reduce the worldwide incidence of HCV infection.

The current invention provides nucleic acid sequences comprising the genomes of infectious hepatitis C viruses (HCV) of genotype 1a and 1b. It covers the use of these sequences, and polypeptides encoded by all or part of the sequences, in the development of vaccines and diagnostic assays for HCV and the development of screening assays for the identification of antiviral agents for HCV.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has created an immense public health, social, and economic burden. Variants of concern continue to emerge that have increased transmissibility, pathogenicity, or both and that reduce the effectiveness of current therapeutics and vaccines. Thus, there is a great need for broadly protective therapeutics.

Available for licensing through a Biological Materials License Agreement are the murine MAbs described in Beeler et al, "Neutralization epitopes of the F glycoprotein of respiratory syncytial virus: effect of mutation upon fusion function," J Virol. 1989 Jul;63(7):2941-2950 (PubMed abs). The MAbs that are available for licensing are the following: 1129, 1153, 1142, 1200, 1214, 1237, 1112, 1269, and 1243. One of these MAbs, 1129, is the basis for a humanized murine MAb (see U.S.