CELLBANK AUSTRALIA'S NEWSLETTER

How CellBank Australia can Help

As Australia's only national cell line repository, CellBank Australia is an essential part of Australia's national research infrastructure. Our facility provides quality-validated cell lines and cell culture related services on a cost-recovery basis to the Australian and international research community.

Cell Authentication Testing

For human cell lines, CellBank Australia uses Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiling to examine the number of tetranucleotide repeats at various loci to differentiate cell lines from different donors. CellBank Australia now offers ** human cell authentication for just $166 ** Australian dollars per sample, excluding GST.

For more information about our service, click here.

Cell-based Research

Macrophage Motility in the Promotion of Tumor Cell Invasion

A co-culture model that uses a PyVmT mouse mammary tumor-derived cell line and mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages has been developed by West Australian researchers to directly examine tumor-associated macrophages and tumor cells interacting and co-migrating in a three-dimensional environment. Their article, titled "A three-dimensional co-culture system to investigate macrophage-dependent tumor cell invasion," was published in the Journal of Biological Methods on 24 July 2016. Here, the researchers show that tumor cell invasion is dependent on the presence of infiltrated macrophages.

To read the article, click here.

Protocol for Circulating Cancer Cell Cultures

A team of researchers in Singapore have demonstrated an efficient approach to evaluating patient drug response using patient-derived circulating tumor cell cultures in an integrated microfluidic system incorporating microfabricated microwells.

To read their 13 July 2016 article in Scientific Advances, click here.

Driving a Subset of Colorectal Cancer Cells

Researchers have investigated the oncogenic potential of insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF-2) in IGF2-overexpressing colorectal cancer models and the efficacy of MEDI-573, an IGF-1/2-neutralizing antibody. Their article, titled "Overproduction of IGF-2 drives a subset of colorectal cancer cells, which specifically respond to an anti-IGF therapeutic antibody and combination therapies," was published online in the journal Oncogene on 11 July 2016. The fourteen colorectal cancer cell lines used in the study (LS1034, HT29, WiDr, SW48, NCI-H474, SW403, LoVo, LS513, DLD1, CL-14, CL-40, CL-34, Caco-2, and CCK81) were all obtained from cell line repositories.

To read the article, click here. Follow the links above to find out more about cell lines that are available from CellBank Australia.

Cell Death by Chemical Swarming?

Researchers have demonstrated how the chemical modification of a poorly toxic drug-like compound with a nontoxic lipophilic ligand leads to a strong biological response mediated either by individual molecules or by their supramolecular assemblies. All of the cell lines used in the study (A-375, A-431, A549, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, U-87 MG) were obtained from the European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC; Porton Down, Salisbury, UK).

To read their 04 July 2016 article in Chemistry - A European Journal, click here. Follow the links above to find out more about the cell lines used.

Good Cell Culture Practice

Shooting for the Moon: A Reproducibility Toolkit is Needed

Earlier this year in his State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the establishment of a new Cancer Moonshot - to be led by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden - to accelerate cancer research.

In May 2016, the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) wrote a letter to Vice President Biden and the National Cancer Advisory Board, urging the Cancer Moonshot Task Force to develop a Reproducibility Toolkit to set consistent benchmarks for cancer research.

To read about the Cancer Moonshot and ICLAC's Letter, click here.