Date added: 21/09/2016 Top Story: Researchers have published an overview of human corneal cell culture models

 

CELLBANK AUSTRALIA'S NEWSLETTER

 

 

Good Cell Culture Practice

 

 

Looking After and Caring for Cultured Cells

 

 

Cell culture experts have discussed variables that can torpedo attempts to replicate cell experiments, in a 15 September 2016 Nature technology feature article titled, "Reproducibility: Respect your cells!" Here, fetal bovine serum is discussed in particular, but other variables are also considered, such as the cells' genetic identity and contaminants. Also, in conclusion, the point is made that while "one of the hardest things to assess is what constitutes a healthy cell," the consequences can be even harder for researchers who neglect to think of cells as "live beings that need to be looked after and cared for." Because they are not doing fairly simple quality control, someone's "PhD goes down the pan, or a grant is lost, or years of work are wasted."

 

To read the article by Monya Baker, click here.

 

 

Looking Back and Moving Ahead: Solutions to Enhance Reproducibility

 

 

In a 13 September 2016 Cell Metabolism op-ed article titled, "Never Waste a Good Crisis: Confronting Reproducibility in Translational Research," Dr Daniel Drucker has recalled how a new cell line that he'd been working on as a postdoctoral fellow in the 1980s, turned out to be a mixture of HeLa cells and a new glucagon-producing cell line, and how several years later, it was discovered that another cell line was contaminated with mycoplasma, and several valuable months were wasted redoing key experiments after re-deriving ‘‘mycoplasma-free’’ cell line stock. Here, and with 30 years' experience in developing new drugs for diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, and obesity, Dr Drucker has also suggested solutions to enhance reproducibility in translational research.

 

To read the article, click here.

 

 

Cell-based Research

 

 

Taking a Look at Human Corneal Cell Culture Models

 

 

Researchers have reviewed human corneal cell culture models. Their article, titled "Human corneal cell culture models for drug toxicity studies," was published in the journal, Drug Delivery and Translational Research, on 9 September 2016.

 

To read the article, click here.

 

 

Nanosafety: Cell Type Selection Should not be Overlooked

 

 

Researchers have evaluated the impact of cell type on in vitro nanosafety evaluations in a human and murine neuroblastoma cell line, neural progenitor cell line and in neural stem cells. Their article, titled "The impact of species and cell type on the nanosafety profile of iron oxide nanoparticles in neural cells," was published in Journal of Nanobiotechnology on 9 September 2016.

 

To read the article, click here.

 

 

New Tools for Insights into Zika Virus-Host Interactions

 

 

Researchers have described the generation and characterization in cell cultures of an infectious cDNA clone of Zika virus (ZIKV) isolated from the 2015 epidemic in Brazil. Their article, titled "A Full-Length Infectious cDNA Clone of Zika Virus from the 2015 Epidemic in Brazil as a Genetic Platform for Studies of Virus-Host Interactions and Vaccine Development," was published in the journal mBio on 23 August 2016. Here, the authors also report a Vero cell-adapted version of that stable infectious cDNA clone for ZIKV, which will be used for virus-host interaction studies and vaccine development. A number of cell lines were used in the study including C6/36, Vero, SH-SY5Y, BeWo and JEG-3.

 

To read the article, click here.

 

 

Community Noticeboard

 

 

NCSR Opening Ceremony & 2016 ISCBI Workshop

 

 

The Opening Ceremony of Korea's National Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (NCSR) and the 2016 International Stem Cell Banking Initiative (ISCBI) Workshop will be held on 19 to 20 October 2016 in Osong and Seoul, Korea.

 

To view the program, click here. For more information, please email the local organiser, Junghyun Kim at dr.junghkim@gmail.com.

 

 

How CellBank Australia can Help

 

 

Scientist Survey Data Risk Analysis

 

 

In November 2013, CellBank Australia undertook an in-depth survey of actual cell culture practice in Australian and New Zealand research labs. Since then we have used survey data, contributed by 250 experts, to assess common cell culture risks and how these risks are managed in practice. Our analysis and recommendations are available in a short report. The article, titled "Is Cell Culture a Risky Business? Risk Analysis based on Scientist Survey Data," was published online in the International Journal of Cancer on 27 August 2015.

 

To read the article, click here.

 

 

Mycoplasma Testing

 

 

Mycoplasma can have major impacts on cell culture results without any visible signs of contamination, and have long been recognized as common cell culture contaminants. CellBank Australia provides a two-assay mycoplasma testing service for ** $126 Australian dollars ** per sample, excluding GST.

 

To learn more about our service, click here.

 

 

Human Cell Authentication Testing

 

 

For human cells, CellBank Australia uses Short Tandem Repeat 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 testing for just ** $166 Australian dollars ** per sample, excluding GST.

 

For more information about our service, click here.

 

 

Distribution of Cell Lines

 

 

CellBank Australia distributes more than 1,800 cell lines for the European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC; Porton Down, Salisbury, UK) to Australian and New Zealand researchers. CellBank Australia also distributes its own collection of cell lines.


To take a look at our online catalog, click here.

 

 

Sydney

 
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