Our Technology

Cell Line Verification

Our technology can verify cell line identity and to discern phenotypic characteristics that may have changed due to variations in culturing. At Cell Origins LLC, we believe that the best way to do this is by using a quick and affordable kit that probes three tiers of biology, namely DNA, RNA transcripts and cell surface biomarkers.

Data Reproducibility

Reproducibility of published data is important in the scientific community. Unfortunately, cell line contamination, misidentification, and phenotypic drifting caused by mis-and over-culturing poses an enormous challenge to data reproducibility. In fact, recently published papers predict that 20%–30% of all cell lines in use may be contaminated or misidentified. In addition, culturing variables has a great impact upon cell phenotype, which leads to a myriad of cell lines with the same name and genetics, but with altered function and phenotype. At Cell Origins LLC, we believe that, while culturing conditions may vary between laboratories, published data using cell lines should be accompanied by verification of identity and phenotypic characterization from the time of the experiment. This analysis will standardize data and greatly enhance scientific reproducibility and thus accelerate cell-based drug discovery and high throughput screening, as well as many other research areas.

Probing Three Tiers of Biology

Identification of cell lines is traditionally done by sequencing of short tandem repeats (STR), which is unable to characterize mutations outside of STRs as well as phenotypic changes. While "omic" technologies including transcriptomics and proteomics can determine cellular changes, these methods and other assays are too complex for quick and affordable phenotype characterization. Thus, cell line identification and characterization using these traditional methods are impractical and out of reach for most laboratories.

Instead, our technology can identify and characterize a subset of cell line- and phenotype-specific biomarkers and RNA transcripts in an easy-to-use kit and mail-in bioassay service. Our technology is able to identify and monitor cultured cell lines for phenotypic drift that results from changes in culturing so that you can ensure that your data is reproducible.