Immunology Contract Research

BRM Inc. provides contract research services targeting:

• Pre-clinical research studies in animal models
• Proof of concept studies
• Animal models of autoimmune diseases
• Vaccine validation and immunogenicity studies

Means of measurement:

• In vivo rodent models
• In vitro analyses of innate and adaptive immune responses

Innate immune responses:

Evaluation of innate immune responses

	Parameter Measured	Means of Measurement
In vivo	Circulating cytokine levels (IL-6, TNFa, IL-1, IFN)	Capture ELISA assays
In vivo	Histopathology	H&E staining of fixed tissues, immuno-histochemistry of fixed or frozen tissues
In vitro	Activation-induced cellular cytokine levels	Capture ELISA assays, intracellular cytokine staining in cells (may be combined with evaluation of cell surface phenotype)

• MyD88-dependent responses initiated through Toll-like receptors
• MyD88-independent responses initiated through Toll-like receptors

Adaptive immune responses:

Evaluation of adaptive immune responses

	Parameter Measured	Means of Measurement
In vivo T and B cells	Cellular phenotype	Single or multi-parameter flow microfluometric analyses
In vivo T and B cells	Cellular phenotype	Immunohistochemistry on fixed or frozen tissues
In vivo T cells	Circulating cytokine levels: type 1 and type 2 polarized T cell responses	Capture ELISA assays for: type 1 (IFNg, IL-12, IL-18) and type 2 (IL-4, IL-10) cytokines
In vivo B cells	Total antigen-specific serum antibody responses; Isotype distribution of antigen-specific antibody responses	Antigen-specific antibody ELISA assays designed for specific needs
In vitro T cells	Activation-induced antigen-specific cytotokine levels	Capture ELISA asays for specific cytokines; intracellular staining for specific cytokines (may be combined with evaluation of cell surface phenotype)
In vitro T cells	Antigen-specific T cell proliferation	Standard 3H-TdR proliferation assays; cell proliferation measured using CFSE dye labeling to enumerate cell generations
In vitro T cells	Cytotoxic assays	Radioactive-based functional assays for CTL and NK cell function

• T cell responses
• B cell responses