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Tracking cell lineages to improve research reproducibility

Nature Biotechnology volume 39, pages 666–670 (2021)Cite this article

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Currently, 18–36% of common cell lines are estimated to be mislabeled or contaminated; in addition, cell lines often evolve divergent lineages1,2. Cell lineages can form by spontaneous or induced selection events during cell culture or when cells are genetically modified. Although funders and journals are starting to acknowledge the importance of cell line authentication, cell lineage provenance is rarely recorded or published, despite its impact on data reliability and reproducibility3,4,5.

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Fig. 1: Genome reading and writing technologies have contributed to an expansion in the number of cell lineages and advanced methods to characterize and track these lineages.
Fig. 2: Evolutionary dynamics and selection in cell line establishment and maintenance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L.M. de Buy Wenniger and T. Joseph for valuable feedback on the manuscript and K. White for assistance with graphic design. S.Z. is supported by the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, the Elisha M. Friedman Postdoctoral Fellowship and FIND Genomics. S.C.G. is supported by a fellowship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation/Life Sciences Research Foundation through grant GBMF2550.06. N.E.S. is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Human Genome Research Institute (grant no. DP2HG010099), NIH National Cancer Institute (grant no. R01CA218668), NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (grant no. R01GM138635), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (grant no. D18AP00053), Sidney Kimmel Foundation, Melanoma Research Alliance, Brain and Behavior Foundation and Cancer Research Institute, and New York University and New York Genome Center startup funds.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sophie Zaaijer, Simon C. Groen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cornell Tech, New York, NY, USA

    Sophie Zaaijer

  2. FIND Genomics, New York, NY, USA

    Sophie Zaaijer

  3. Department of Biology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Simon C. Groen & Neville E. Sanjana

  4. New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA

    Neville E. Sanjana

Authors
  1. Sophie Zaaijer
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  2. Simon C. Groen
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  3. Neville E. Sanjana
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Contributions

Conception: S.Z., S.C.G., N.E.S. Writing and figures: S.Z., S.C.G., N.E.S.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sophie Zaaijer, Simon C. Groen or Neville E. Sanjana.

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Competing interests

S.Z. is a co-founder of FIND Genomics, a company that aims to improve reproducible cell-based science and develops cell lineage tracking software. N.E.S is an advisor to Vertex.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Biotechnology thanks Chad Cowan and Johan Rockberg for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zaaijer, S., Groen, S.C. & Sanjana, N.E. Tracking cell lineages to improve research reproducibility. Nat Biotechnol 39, 666–670 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00928-1

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