Date added: 17/06/2015 Top Story: Rigor and Transparency in NIH Supported Research
Cell-based Research
Rigor and Transparency in NIH Supported Research
According to a Notice issued on 9 June 2015, The National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD, US) Office of Extramural Research plans to clarify and revise application instructions and review criteria to enhance reproducibility of research findings through increased scientific rigor and transparency. Pending approval by the White House Office of Management and Budget, these updates will take effect for applications submitted for the 25 January 2016 due date and beyond.
These new instructions and revised review criteria will focus on four areas deemed important for enhancing rigor and transparency:
- the scientific premise of the proposed research;
- rigorous experimental design for robust and unbiased results;
- consideration of relevant biological variables; and
- authentication of key biological and/or chemical resources: these include, but are not limited to, cell lines, specialty chemicals and antibodies.
To read the Notice, click here.
Webinar: Choosing the Right Cell Line for Your Research
Professor Valerie Speirs of the University of Leeds (Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK) will present a webinar titled, "How to choose the right cell line for your research," at 2pm British Summer Time (BST) / 3pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) / 11pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on 25 June 2015. The webinar is being offered by the European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC; Porton Down, Salisbury, UK) in association with Sigma-Aldrich, and will focus on best practice in selecting and maintaining cell lines for research, to ensure research outputs are relevant and reproducible.
Professor Speirs has said that features of cell lines that might be used in selection will be discussed in the webinar. "This will include monolayer or suspension culture; passage number; doubling time; immortalisation; karyotype; receptors; expression profiling and use of bioinformatics tools like the cancer cell line encyclopaedia. Using breast cancer as an exemplar, I will discuss more specifically how to choose the most relevant cell line model to address a particular research question. Finally I will describe how to use (and access) human material to help develop more clinically relevant cell culture systems to model human disease and the role that biobanks play in this process."
To register for the webinar, click here.
Irreproducibility: Root Causes and Highest Priorities
A 'Perspective' article on the irreproducibility problem has been published in PLOS Biology on 9 June 2015. According to the authors, the primary goal of the article is "not to pinpoint the exact irreproducibility rate, but rather to identify root causes of the problem, estimate the direct costs of irreproducible research, and to develop a framework to address the highest priorities." Click here to read the article, titled "The Economics of Reproducibility in Preclinical Research." Cancer cell lines are discussed specifically.
Good Cell Culture Practice
Upcoming 'Risky Business' Seminar
CellBank Australia is offering a free seminar titled "Is Cell Culture a Risky Business?" to research institutions in the Sydney area in 2015. The seminar, authored and presented by Dr Amanda Capes-Davis, looks at the risks that relate to cell culture work, and how to minimize those risks through Good Cell Culture Practice.
The seminar will be given at The University of Sydney (NSW, AU) on 25 June 2015, from 11am-12pm, at the New Law Lecture Theatre 101. All University of Sydney researchers and research administrators are welcome to attend. Please call me on 0405 988 098 or email me at mshannon@cmri.org.au for more information.
Amanda was the Founding Manager of the CellBank Australia facility and chairs the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC).
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