Work with infectious Ebola viruses is restricted to biosafety level 4 laboratories. Tetracistronic minigenome-containing replication and transcription-competent virus like particles (trVLPs) represent a lifecycle modeling system that allows us to safely model multiple infectious cycles under biosafety level 2 conditions, relying exclusively on Ebola virus components.
Hoenen, T., Watt, A., Mora, A., Feldmann, H. Modeling The Lifecycle Of Ebola Virus Under Biosafety Level 2 Conditions With Virus-like Particles Containing Tetracistronic Minigenomes. J. Vis. Exp. (91), e52381, doi:10.3791/52381 (2014).