Construction and Isolation of Recombinant MVA

Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is a valuable tool for the expression of recombinant genes used for such purposes as the study of protein functions or characterization of cellular and humoral immune responses. A major advantage of MVA is its clear safety record, and it can be handled under biosafety level 1 conditions. Despite its replication deficiency in human and most mammalian cells, MVA provides high-level gene expression and has proven to be immunogenic when delivering heterologous antigens in animals and humans. This chapter provides state-of-the-art protocols for generation, plaque isolation, molecular characterization, as well as amplification and purification of MVA vector viruses to obtain recombinant viruses for further evaluation.