Patent ID: 7244578

Claim:
A method of studying infectivity of a pathogen in tissues comprising the steps of: isolating cells from a host tissue sample; placing said isolated host cells into a bioreactor comprising culture medium to form a cell culture; applying sedimental shear stress to the cells in the cell culture to form a three-dimensional tissue mass; seeding the formed tissue mass in a tissue culture vessel; introducing an infectious pathogen into said three-dimensional mass; and assaying the infectivity of said infectious pathogen, wherein said assaying comprises the steps of: obtaining a measurement of at least one of the following parameters after introducing said infectious pathogen: adherence of said infectious pathogen to cultured cells; cytokine expression in cultured cells; or prostaglandin synthesis in cultured cells; and comparing the measurement to a control value of the measured parameter, wherein the control value corresponds to a measurement of the same parameter for a cell culture into which said infectious pathogen has not been introduced.