PA-16-186: Tools for Cell Line Identification (R43/R44) - 0 views
-
MiamiOH OARS on 19 Apr 16This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to address the problem of misidentified cell lines. Many advances in biomedical science have arisen from studies of cultured cell lines, which are widely used for basic research on cell function, as models for disease, and for drug screening. In most of this research, correct identification of the cell lines used is necessary to replicate experiments. In addition, in a majority of the projects the cell lines used were chosen because they are predicated to recapitulate biologically important features of the tissue and/or tumor of origin, for example, driver mutations, expression patterns, and functional correlates of the differentiated state of the original tissue. Cell line origins are documented by chain of custody (a continuous chronological record documenting their source, transfer, analysis, and disposition). However, cell lines in culture are prone to contamination by foreign cells, which may rapidly displace the original cells. The identity of cultured cells should be routinely verified, but a majority of laboratories do not monitor the identity of their cell lines, and many cell lines are misidentified. Analyses of cells submitted to major repositories such as the ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) and the DSMZ (Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen) have found that 15-40% of cell lines submitted by investigators are misidentified, i.e., they have a tissue or species of origin that differs from the one reported. Similar frequencies of misidentification have been reported by research laboratories that have examined cell line collections.