Location: Foreign Animal Disease Research
Project Number: 8064-32000-060-33-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2020
End Date: May 31, 2021
Objective:
This collaborative agreement seeks to design and synthesize synthetic DNA encoding for African swine fever virus to be used for creating recombinant ASFV.
Approach:
African Swine Fever (ASF) is a large DNA virus of approximately 180kb. The ASFV-G genome will be synthesized from de-novo synthesis, using patented methods from CodexDNA, containing a fluorescent marker. Mutants will also be made changing particular genes from genotype II to a different genotype. The DNA will then be used along with techniques involving ARS-PIADC's propriety helper virus to create infectious ASFV virus from de-novo synthesis.