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This novel assay features real-time PCR reagents and methods for detecting drug-resistance related mutations in HIV, for newly diagnosed patients and those individuals currently receiving antiretroviral therapies. As the use of antiretroviral compounds to treat HIV infection proliferates, viruses adapt and evolve mutations limiting the efficacy of these drugs and disrupting the success of treatment.

This CDC-developed technology relates to novel vaccines or boosters directed against pulmonary tuberculosis. There is currently only a single vaccine against tuberculosis, the (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) BCG vaccine. Reports suggest widely variable effectiveness for the BCG vaccine and that BCG administration has very limited success against prevention of the primary pulmonary form of the disease.

This CDC developed collection device is a small (approximately 1 cubic foot) open-sided container that attracts mosquitoes seeking a daytime resting location. The container is dark-colored and constructed of molded wood-fiber or recycled, high-density plastic. Mosquitoes that enter the dark space of the container are aspirated through a battery-powered fan into a collection receptacle. The receptacle is especially attractive to Culex and Anopheles mosquitos' vectors of West Nile Virus and malaria parasites, respectively.

One of the problems with the development of current therapies for HIV infection is that the virus rapidly develops resistance to drugs such as reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors.

This CDC developed optimization technology allows one to characterize the behavior of the coefficient of variation (CV) for a range of mass spectrometer machine settings. Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) are used for the early detection of numerous diseases, for example cervical cancer . A critical step in the analytical process is the optimization of experiment and machine settings to ensure the best possible reproducibility of results, as measured by the CV.

This CDC assay aims to lessen the anti-malarial drug counterfeiting epidemic by testing for the artemisinin-type drugs (the active compound), through the use of a simple, inexpensive colorimetric test. Poor quality and counterfeit drugs pose an immediate threat to public health and undermine malaria control efforts, resulting in resistant-parasites and invalidates effective compounds, i.e.

CDC researchers have developed a multiplexed diagnostic assay for sensitive detection and distinction between viral group members based on the presence/absence of infection-generated antibodies within a clinical serum sample. For example, this assay can be used for rapid discrimination of a clinical unknown as specifically a West Nile or St. Louis encephalitis viral infection. This is particularly beneficial as these two viruses are typically difficult to distinguish by standard serological assays.

This new technique uses microsphere/microbead-based flow-analysis as a platform.

CDC researchers have isolated and characterized the novel primate T-lymphotropic viruses denoted human T-lymphotropic viruses 3 and 4 (HTLV-3 and HTLV4), that are believed to have resulted from cross-species transmission at some point in the past. It has been previously established that HTLV-1 causes adult T cell leukemia and other inflammatory diseases; HTLV-2 is considered less pathogenic than HTLV-1 and has been associated with a neurologic disease similar to HTLV-1-associated myelopathy.

This invention pertains to nucleic acid-based assays for the detection of Aspergillus and other filamentous fungi. Assays cover the species-specific detection and diagnosis of infection by Aspergillus, Fusarium, Mucor, Penecillium, Rhizomucor, Absidia, Cunninghamella, Pseudallescheria or Sporthrix in a subject. This can reduce identification time from several days by conventional culture methods to a matter of hours.

This invention, entailsnucleic acid-based assays, for detecting the presence of pathogenic fungi such as Histoplasma capsulatum, Blastomyces dermatitidis, Coccidioides immitis, Pneumocystis brasiliensis, and/or Penicillium marneffei within a sample. Within a healthcare setting, this particular approach can greatly reduce pathogen identification time, better direct treatments and ultimately improve patient outcomes.