Advanced Cell Culture Facility

To perform cutting-edge veterinary biomedical research, it is essential to have access to in vitro tissues that closely resemble the in vivo tissues of different animals. At the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, we provide a facility for the harvesting, biobanking and culturing of primary epithelial, stromal and immune cells from different animal species. Our expertise includes tissues from respiratory, nasal, urogenital and intestinal origins. The methods we use include seeding of cells and differentiation of tissues from farm and companion animals in transwell systems under air-liquid interface (ALI) and liquid-liquid interface (LLI) conditions. We are also developing methods for culturing veterinary tissue explants and organoid cultures. Our advanced cell culture models are suitable to study species-specific infection dynamics of viral (e.g. Influenza A virus) and bacterial pathogens (e.g. Salmonella, Mannheimia, Campylobacter) with readout parameters including barrier integrity (TEER), cytotoxicity (LDH) and visualisation of bacteria, viruses and relevant host receptors by confocal immunofluorescence, FISH and immunohistochemistry.