Introducing Progenetix Cell Line Beacon - A comprehensive cancer cell line variant knowledge resource
Zurich Seminars in Bioinformatics - Rahel Paloots
- 12:15 om ZOOM Call
Cancer cell lines are good models for studying the disease mechanisms and testing for possible drugs. For the cell lines to be accurate representations of the disease, they would need to be genetically highly similar to their primary neoplasias. Another issue when working with cell lines is the possible contamination or misidentification of the cell lines. To address both of these concerns, the genetics of both cancer cell lines and their origins will need to be evaluated. Cancers as well as cancer cell lines exhibit copy number variation (CNV) profiles that show regions in the chromosomes that have been deleted or amplified. Similarity assessment of these CNV profiles along with examining single nucleotide variants as well, enable the detection of cell lines that are the most accurate representations of the disease. Therefore, we have been building an extensive knowledge resource for cell line copy number and single nucleotide variants (SNVs). Progenetix database contains information about both CNVs and SNVs as well as NCIt and ICDO codes for the disease origin. Progenetix is part of the Beacon network that enables querying for variant information worldwide. Additionally, more metadata about cancer cell lines and variants will be available on Progenetix website. The collection of these data enables and facilitates research with cancer cell lines as well as the authentication of the cancer cell lines.