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I am trying to learn more about virology for a tentative job I could be taking soon, as a quality control person in virology.

However, I have not taken a formal virology course, nor any course work in "quality control".

Googling showed me this website for learning more QC topics, however I was curious if anyone had better suggestions.

My question is if anyone had (ideally free) resources on learning virology (in the context of preventing cell culture contamination) and quality control in industry labs they thought would be ideal?

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    $\begingroup$ I work in human somatic cell therapies. For human administration I need to do, at a minimum, sterility and mycoplasma contamination testing (BacT/Alert culture bottles (Biomerieux), MycoTOOL RT-PCR (Roche)). For virally transfected lines I may need to QC the virus titer in the final product, and in some cases QC the transfection efficiency (qPCR, ELISA, flow cytometry). I also need to test viability, cell number, potency, purity and identity per protocol requirements. Perhaps first try to understand what the company you're applying to is doing for better direction. $\endgroup$ – CKM Feb 11 '19 at 15:32
  • $\begingroup$ @CKM. I was speaking with a recruiter and they spoke on maybe placing me in a QC virology position because they saw I had some DNA extraction experience. They are going under a period of restructuring so I dont know if they have an official position open. From similar job listings of positions the sterility and Mycoplasma testing were listed as needed. The company is a mid sized bio tech that manufacturers; as they have / hire alot of production people for maintaining cell cultures ( I assume in large bio reactors). $\endgroup$ – Ro Siv Feb 11 '19 at 16:01
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    $\begingroup$ I could probably recommend, then, an intro virology text at the undergrad-level if you're interested in the science. QC work is a lot of technical expertise. So not only should I know a bit about the test I'm running, but also the equipment, the results and how to analyze or report them. You learn none of it outside the job position, really. Important skill set will be wet lab experience, and being good with computers and recordkeeping (non-exhaustive list). $\endgroup$ – CKM Feb 11 '19 at 16:09
  • $\begingroup$ @CKM. I would like that very much. Thanks. And I am happy to take any other resource recommendations, maybe more info on the sterility and Mycoplasma testing? $\endgroup$ – Ro Siv Feb 11 '19 at 17:53

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