CELLBANK AUSTRALIA'S NEWSLETTER

Newsflash

CellBank Australia now offers ** human cell authentication testing for $166 ** Australian dollars per sample, excluding GST. We can accept cells as samples on dry ice, or DNA as samples at ambient temperature.

To make it easier for researchers in your laboratory, department, or perhaps even your institution, why not arrange a regular day each week or month for bulk transporation of samples to CellBank Australia. Researchers could then plan their collection of samples around that day, and transportation costs could be minimized. It costs around $100 for dry ice shipping from Australian capital cities to Sydney, and much less for ambient shipments of DNA. Spread across multiple samples within a single shipment, transportation costs would be a minor concern.   

For more information about our service, click here.

Good Cell Culture Practice

Contamination of cell cultures due to the presence of additional cell populations - either microbial or from other, unrelated cell lines -  is a widespread problem both in Australia and internationally which threatens the integrity of research findings, the reproducibility of data, and the ability to translate preclinical research into the clinic. This is a problem that is now becoming increasingly recognised by top-tier international journals, by research funding agencies, and by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies which rely on high-quality academic research to produce a pipeline of discoveries that can be translated into the clinic. Awareness of the problem and Good Cell Culture Practice are essential to improve the quality of results obtained with cultured cells.

International Good Cell Culture Practice Consortium

In 2005, a report titled, "Guidance on Good Cell Culture Practice," was published in the Alternatives to Laboratory Animals journal. The report outlined six principles of Good Cell Culture Practice (GCCP).

1. Establishment and maintenance of a sufficient understanding of the in vitro system and of the relevant factors which could affect it.
2. Assurance of the quality of all materials and methods, and of their use and application, in order to maintain the integrity, validity, and reproducibility of any work conducted.
3. Documentation of the information necessary to track the materials and methods used, to permit the repetition of the work, and to enable the target audience to understand and evaluate the work.
4. Establishment and maintenance of adequate measures to protect individuals and the environment from any potential hazards.
5. Compliance with relevant laws and regulations, and with ethical principles.
6. Provision of relevant and adequate education and training for all personnel, to promote high quality work and safety.

However, due to changes in in vitro culture technology in the last decade, new challenges in GCCP have been identified. Indeed, an information session was held in Germany last year on GCCP and human stem cells and organoids. To reduce uncertainty in the development and application of in vitro procedures the GCCP 2.0 Collaboration plans to update the original GCCP document.

To learn more about the consortium, click here. To read the 2005 Guidance, click here.

International Cell Line Authentication Committee

The International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) is a voluntary and independent group of scientists that aims to make cell line misidentification more visible and promote authentication testing as a solution to this important problem. ICLAC members have contributed towards, and have authored a number of articles so far this year. All are well worth the read.

In a 29 July 2016 Science article by Ben Panko, titled "Sex problems? Researchers find ‘widespread’ mislabeling of the sex of human samples,"  Dr Amanda Capes-Davis, chair of ICLAC, has commented on the mislabeling of cell samples in transcriptomic studies.

To read the article, click here. 

On 14 June 2016, PLOS Biology published a primer article by Dr Capes-Davis and Dr Richard M. Neve, titled "Authentication: A Standard Problem or a Problem of Standards?" Here Drs Capes-Davis and Neve consider the key features of the current research climate that contribute to the problem of cell line misidentification and how standards are an important factor to help promote positive change. The primer accompanies an article authored by scientists of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, MD, USA) on the use of standards in biomedical research. 

To read the ICLAC primer article, click here. To read the NIST article, click here. 

On 20 April 2016, members of ICLAC warned researchers in a Nature correspondence article that cell cultures from patient-derived xenografts call for extra quality-control measures, such as screening for cross-species DNA contamination.

Dr Amanda Capes Davis, chair of ICLAC told me that: "We want people to think about the risks to their research that can arise from cell culture.  Stem cell, xenograft and 3D cultures are exciting new developments but they can still become misidentified through cross-contamination. Planning ahead – for example, storing donor tissue as a 'gold standard' for later authentication testing – will help to minimise the risks for the next generation of scientists to use today’s new models."

To read the article, click here.

Cell Authentication Alliance

The Cell Authentication Alliance (Alliance) brings together a diverse set of committed stakeholders with the sole purpose of making routine cell line authentication the new norm. The Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI; Washington, DC, USA) facilitates the work of the Alliance.

To learn more about the Alliance, click here.

Cell-based Research

2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap

Commissioned by the Australian Government, the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap (2016 Roadmap) initiative will set out Australia’s long term research infrastructure needs and propose future areas of investment, so that Australia continues to maintain its research excellence and increases innovation.

As part of a consultation program for the development of the 2016 Roadmap, submissions against questions posed by a "National Research Infrastructure Capability Issues Paper" and other comments besides have been invited. For example, the Expert Working Group that is supporting the development of the 2016 Roadmap has indicated that it would also like to know views on:

1. Thinking big - what new capabilities would contribute to excellence in Australian public and private research?
2. What is the most exciting emerging research capability that you would dream of building in Australia?
3. What kinds of new capabilities would particularly attract industry partnerships?
4. Are there emerging areas of research that require international engagement on research infrastructure outside Australia? 

CellBank Australia will make a submission, and urges others to think about research and development of cell-based therapy technologies and personalized medicine in their submissions.

Click here to read the issues paper and access the submission template. The submissions process will close on Friday 9 September 2016.
 

How CellBank Australia can Help

As Australia's only national not-for-profit 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.

International Depositary Authority

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 as an IDA under the Budapest Treaty since 2010.

Due to proximity, our Patent Deposit service is well suited to inventors in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast 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.