Cell-based Research

Engineering Cells to Treat Childhood Diseases

While it is too soon to say that she has been cured, a one year old girl dying from leukaemia has received engineered T-cells as a form of gene therapy, and is doing well. According to a 5 November 2015 press release, this breakthrough comes from Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH; London, UK) and UCL Institute of Child Health’s (ICH; London, UK) pioneering research teams, who together are developing treatments and cures for some of the rarest childhood diseases.

Click here to read the press release. Click here to read a New Scientist article titled, "Gene editing saves girl dying from leukaemia in world first."

Good Cell Culture Practice

Changing the Culture of Cell Culture

In order to understand the extent of cell line authentication efforts within the biomedical community at the moment, the Cancer Cell Authentication and Standards Task Force of the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI; Washington, DC, US) designed and conducted a 24 question survey from 16 April to 5 June 2015, focusing on current cell culture and authentication practices. The key findings from that survey were published as a Letter to the Editor in BioTechniques on 12 October 2015.

In that Letter, the authors report that when it comes to training, "only 62% of respondents had received specific training on the problems of cell line misidentification (cross contamination) and mislabeling," and conclude that the scientific community must commit "sufficient time, resources, and expertise to adequately train and educate young scientists in best practices for cell culture experiments."

To read their thought provoking Letter, "The culture of cell culture practices and authentication - Results from a 2015 Survey," click here.

To read our 27 August 2015 International Journal of Cancer article, "Is cell culture a risky business? Risk analysis based on scientist survey data," which identifies lessons to be addressed through training, click here. To read a 7 October 2015 Lab + Life Scientist article by Lauren Davis, click here.

How CellBank Australia Can Help

Depositing Cell Lines in Our Patent Deposit Service

If you want to patent a biological material such as a cell line in the United States for example, you can deposit it in CellBank Australia under our Patent Deposit service. You don't need to deposit the cell line in a recognized depositary authority based in the United States.Under the Budapest Treaty, certain culture collections are recognized as International Depositary Authorities (IDAs) and a deposit made with any one of them is recognized as valid for patent purposes by all the countries in which protection for the relevant invention is sought.

CellBank Australia has been recognized since 2010 as an IDA under the Budapest Treaty.

Due to proximity, our Patent Deposit service is well suited to inventors in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, who wish to deposit human or animal cell lines or hybridomas in support of patent applications.

To learn more about our Patent Deposit service, click here.