Resources

Reproducibility in Research

Scope of the crisis

Concern over the rigor and reproducibility of biomedical research has raised concerns in recent years across academic and industry laboratories, biomedical journals, and government funding agencies. Numerous cases have been reported in which initial, promising results with a candidate drug could not be repeated in other labs.

The CellAssist brings new capabilities for reproducible cell, tissue, and suspension culture

Cell, tissue, and suspension culture has remained a largely manual process with inadequate tools for improving quantification and documentation. Fortunately, the CellAssist instrument provides many of the capabilities needed to improve rigor and reproducibility of cell, tissue and suspension culture and cell-based assays.

Technical Note – Variability in Cell Confluency: Comparison of Human and CellAssist Assessments

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Publications

Title:

Refresh cell culture

Authors:

Editors of Nature Biomedical Engineering

Published:

Nature Biomedical Engineering, August 2021

Access:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-021-00790-1

Quote:

“Biomedical research needs upgraded standards for the monitoring, control and reporting of the environmental conditions of cells in culture.”

Title:

A prevalent neglect of environmental control in mammalian cell culture calls for best practices

Authors:

Shannon G. Klein, et al

Published:

Nature Biomedical Engineering, August 2021

Access:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-021-00775-0

Quote:

“Biomedical research needs upgraded standards for the monitoring, control and reporting of the environmental conditions of cells in culture.”

Title:

Good Science Needs Good Cells: Thrive Bioscience

Authors:

Thomas Forest Farb-Horch

Published:

Silicon Review, August 2020

Access:

https://thesiliconreview.com/magazine/profile/good-science-needs-good-cells-thrive-bioscience/

Quote:

“As a result of customers having the CellAssist, when an experiment does not work as planned, a researcher can now review all of their cells and processes and understand why. This is key to good science. Because good science needs good cells.”

Title:

The costs of using unauthenticated, over-passaged cell lines: How much more data do we need?

Authors:

Peyton Hughes, Damian Marshall, Yvonne Reid, Helen Parkes & Cohava Gelber

Published:

BioTechniques, November 2007

Access:

https://www.future-science.com/doi/pdf/10.2144/000112598

Quote:

“Based on submissions to major cell repositories in the last decade, it is estimated that between 18% and 36% of cell lines may be contaminated or misidentified.”

Title:

Fixing problems with cell lines

Authors:

Leonard P. Freedman, Iain M. Cockburn, Timothy S. Simcoe

Published:

Science, December 19th, 2014

Access:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6216/1452/tab-pdf

Quote:

“Despite the important role of cell, tissue and suspension culture in the study of biology and medicine, evidence has accumulated that cell lines are frequently misidentified or contaminated by other cells or microorganisms.”

“Analyses of a variety of tissue culture collections and cells sent to repositories for curation and storage from labs in the United States, Europe, and Asia suggest that at least 15% of cell lines are misidentified or contaminated (4, 5).”

Title:

The Economics of Reproducibility in Preclinical Research

Authors:

Jon R. Lorsch, Francis S. Collins, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz

Published:

PLOS Biology, June 5, 2015

Access:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002165

Quote:

“The history of cell lines used in biomedical research is riddled with misidentification and cross-contamination events [29], which have been estimated to range from 15% to 36% [30].”

“Lifesaving therapies are being delayed, research budgets face increasing pressure, and drug development and treatment costs are rising. Improving reproducibility remains a critical cornerstone to solving each of these challenges.”

Title:

In cancer science, many “discoveries” don’t hold up

Authors:

Sharon Begley

Published:

Reuters, March 28, 2012

Access:

https://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USBRE82R12P20120328

Quote:

“The reproduction of results is the cornerstone of science; yet, at times, reproducing the results of others can be a difficult challenge…. Despite using seemingly identical methods, reagents, and specimens, our two laboratories quite reproducibly were unable to replicate each other’s… cell [profiles]…. A set of data that was supposed to be completed in a few months took 2 years to understand and sort out”

Title:

Imaging in Developmental Biology: An Essential Tool with No Instructions

Authors:

Guillermo Marques, Thomas Pengo, and Mark A. Sanders

Published:

Journal of Biomolecular Techniques, December 2019

Access:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6936888/

Quote:

“Imaging is a fundamental tool in biomedical disciplines… In our work at a major imaging core, we are often met with the situation in which the experiments our clients want to recreate are poorly described, making analysis and replication of the published literature difficult.”