Functional Validation Core

Director: Chris Aiken, PhD

The Functional Validation Core plays two key roles in the PCHPI. First, the Validation Core directs the choice of targets for structural analysis by identifying those that exhibit functional consequences in HIV-infected cells. The functional significance of protein candidates identified in the DIB Core Predictions or from collaborators' efforts is tested by RNAi and candidate-specific assays are devised based on known activities of the specific viral protein. Second, the Validation Core will test, in functional assays, specific hypotheses that are generated by the structural data emerging from the PCHPI and, potentially, from other funded HIV Structures Centers.

The Functional Validation Core is located in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. It employs Open Biosystems' human, genome-wide, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) library, which is available as individual, target-specific, lentiviral shRNA expression vectors. The Core also develops and collects other experimental tools for analyzing function, including stage-specific assays of HIV-1 infection (fusion, uncoating, reverse transcription, nuclear import, and integration), various replication and single-cycle reporter assays, and mutant viruses.