Newswise — Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) will introduce a new cell authentication training modules and videos to be available online for use by students, post-doctoral scholars, research faculty, educators and education administrators. The materials are part of a new GBSI program, “Enhancing Data Reproducibility Through Cell Authentication Training,”* that will teach researchers to test for and decrease the likelihood of cell line contamination and misidentification, improving research reproducibility and decrease translation time from bench to clinic to bedside. The new step in education and training will ensure more effective use of millions of dollars in research expenditures.
WHAT: The session, “Meeting NIH’s Rigor & Reproducibility Training Requirement for Key Biological Resources with Cell Authentication Training” will introduce GBSI’s new cell authentication training module. The module will contain highly interactive training units including how-to videos that will turn learning into practice by sending the trainees back into the laboratory to practice their skills, and tracking whether their training is incorporated into their future research.
WHO: Leonard P. Freedman, Ph.D., president of GBSI and project director/principal investigator, along with GBSI’s director of education and training, Vivian Siegel, Ph.D. will explain how the effective active-learning training module and robust dissemination campaign will improve both awareness and implementation of cell authentication.
WHEN: Monday, December 4, 2017, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT.
WHERE: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, U.S.A., Room 126-B.
HOW: The project is supported, in part, by a grant of $150,000 awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, and by Susan G. Komen. Faculty for the project are from University of California San Francisco (UCSF), University of New Mexico, ATCC and Gilead, Inc. Advisors are from American Society of Cell Biology and UCSF. The grant will benefit researchers, companies, funders and trainees.
WHY: Cell line contamination and misidentification are major contributors to research reproducibility problems. Biological research using cell lines is often one of the first in a long series of steps from basic research to new treatments for disease. Research reproducibility in projects involving cell lines requires that those lines be what researchers think they are, and be free of contamination from other cells or microbes. Best practices exist to reduce these problems significantly and ensure more effective use of research dollars, and yet awareness and implementation of these practices remain low.
A survey GBSI conducted in 2015 of almost 450 biomedical researchers from every major stakeholder group (e.g., academia, industry) showed little had changed in cell line authentication and culture practices in a decade—those same practices contribute to irreproducible research, and delays and increased costs of drug discovery. Commentary, conclusions and the survey are published in BioTechniques.
ALSO INCLUDING GBSI: Dr. Freedman will also be presenting at the session, “Researcher and Institutional Roles in Ensuring Reliable Research,” December 5, 11 a.m., at the Pennsylvania Convention Center/Room 122A, hosted by ASCB and EMBO. Freedman and colleagues will lead discussion about the importance and recent urgency of ensuring reproducible research, and the roles of both individual researchers and the institutions supporting them in this pursuit.
About Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of biomedical research by advocating best practices and standards to accelerate the translation of research breakthroughs into life-saving therapies. GBSI was founded by American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), and is currently funded primarily by ATCC’s BioNexus Foundation, with additional support from other grants and donations. For more information, visit GBSI.org and Twitter @GBSIorg.
Media Contacts:
Carol Miller, Senior Communications Advisor, GBSI, [email protected], +1-202-306-0130 Nancy Retherford, Communications Advisor, GBSI, [email protected], +1-317-460-6838
*Acknowledgements:
Funding for Enhancing Data Reproducibility Through Cell Authentication Training, related materials and promotion of thereof is supported, in part, by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number25GM16155.The content of the training projects and related materials are solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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