Introducing ATCC Tumor Cell Panels: Powerful New Tools for Cancer Research ATCC launches valuable and gentically-diverse tumor cell panels for drug discovery, pathway analysis and functional genomics
Searching for appropriate tumor cell models often entails a time-intensive review of the literature and genomic databases. To enable cancer researchers, ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) has introduced a collection of Tissue-Specific Tumor Cell Panels. These powerful new tools combine well-characterized adherent cell lines that were selected for their genomic mutations as found in the Sanger COSMIC database, greatly reducing the time and effort scientists devote to finding these cells. Working closely with customers, ATCC scientists have identified cell lines that that are easy to grow using standard media formulations and possess critical genetic abnormalities found in tumors.
Each Tissue-Specific Tumor Cell Panel is comprised of different cell lines that have been grouped by tissue of tumor origin. In developing the panels, ATCC scientists evaluated 20 different genes associated with tumorigenesis, including TP53, CDKN2A, BRAF, and KRAS. Descriptive information for each cell line has been annotated with details regarding known mutations in these selected oncogenes or receptors. Cell panels, as research models, are as valuable as the depth of understanding and data supporting them. There are currently 10 Tissue-Specific Tumor Cell Panels in the collection, including panels for breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancer.
As part of its mission, ATCC will continue to augment the available information on the Tumor Cell Panel cell lines from other databases, and will perform further characterization on the panels. When combined with the size and scope of the ATCC tumor cell line collection, this growing knowledge base enables scientists to make smarter choices when selecting cell-based research models for cancer research, drug discovery, compound screening, biomarker selection, pathway analysis and functional genomics.
“Scientists are requiring more genomic and proteomic data on the cell lines they use in their studies to understand the roles that genetic defects have in the pathobiology of cancer,” said Dr. Richard Kolodner, Member, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, UC San Diego School of Medicine Branch. “ATCC is helping scientists by consulting with researchers and going through the gigabytes of data and stacks of literature to find relevant cell lines with sufficient genetic diversity to create a representative panel,” he added.
ATCC Tissue-Specific Tumor Cell panels offer economy over individual lines, are supplied with comprehensive genetic profile information, and are accompanied by expert support if needed.
For more information, please go to www.atcc.org/tcp. To speak with an expert or place an order, call toll free 1‑800‑638‑6597 (option 2) in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, or international callers can dial +1‑703‑365‑2700, or e-mail ATCC Customer Service at sales(at)atcc(dot)org.
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