DETROIT – Asterand, which supplies human tissue products and services, will now distribute eleven cancer cell lines under license from the University of Michigan.
The SUM cell lines, derived in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Ethier, now at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, are among the most well characterized cancer cell lines currently used for research. There are an estimated 1.2 million new diagnoses worldwide of breast cancer each year. The cell lines can be used to study all aspects of breast cancer biology, from new drug target identification to cell signaling to effects of novel drugs on cellular proliferation.
?The goal of the collaboration is to pull together a great knowledge base,? Ethier said. ?This is unprecedented for people who work with cell lines.?
In addition to providing the cell lines, Asterand will curate all the molecular information associated with the cell lines. As a result, researchers will possess not only the cell lines, which are valuable on their own, but also a great wealth of genomic and proteomic information.
?Cell lines are a great tool for understanding cancer biology,? said Dr. James Eliason, Chief Scientific Officer of Asterand. ?Tissue sections provide a static image of what is occurring in tissues at the molecular level, but cell lines, continually growing, are a dynamic representation of that same level.?
Asterand also plans to offer molecular derivatives from the cell lines, including RNA, DNA, and protein. The company is licensed to perform contract research services using the SUM lines, as well as the production of microarrays using fixed samples of the cells, grown under specific conditions and on a custom basis.
