The Joint R&D Division in Virology of SLU and SVA has the following main activities:
1) Development and routine application of molecular assays for detection of viral pathogens; 2) Applied and fundamental research on pathogenesis of viral infections, e.g., pestiviruses, coronaviruses, arteriviruses, influenza viruses, circoviruses and Borna Disease virus, as well as on virological aspects of food safety; 3) As Collaborating Centre of the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) for the Biotechnology-based Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Veterinary Medicine, active participation in international standardisation and validation of molecular diagnostic assays, dissemination of results and international training. Experience and competence has been established in molecular diagnostics, molecular phylogeny, construction of full-length infectious cDNA clones and the generation of chimeric viruses, as well as the genetic manipulations of these clones for studies on the biology of the infectious agents. The group has good experience in international research, with recent participation in 12 EU projects, of which Prof. S. Belák has co-ordinated three large EU consortia, including international agencies IAEA, FAO and OIE. Studies on influenzavirus and coronavirus evolution, genetic stability, phylogeny, molecular epidemiology and molecular detection are performed in collaboration with research groups of Uppsala University (Profs. J. Blomberg, U. Landegren), KTH, SMI, among others.