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Material Measurement Laboratory

Biosystems and Biomaterials Division

Databases for Cell Line Assurance

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Standards exist for human cell line authentication using short tandem repeat (STR) markers.  The STR profile obtained using validated assays can be compared to concordant data available on public databases found on national repository websites and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Biosample website.  In addition, a searchable version of a database for known misidentified and contaminated human cell lines that contains over 475 entries has recently become available on the NCBI Biosample website as well as the International Cell Line Authentication Committee (ICLAC) homepage. 

As there is a database for results comparison with specific species, DNA barcoding is recommended for nonhuman cell line authentication.  ANSI standard ANS-0003 describes DNA barcoding for species-level identification of cell lines in great detail.  Two (2) central databases are available for comparative searches: the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) and GenBank. 

 

Human Cell Line Databases of STR profiles:

Misidentified and Contaminated Cell Line Databases:

DNA Barcoding Databases:

Contacts

Bioassay Methods Group

Created June 30, 2016, Updated February 20, 2020