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Partner: CLS Cell Lines Service | Hölzel Diagnostika

CLS Cell Lines Service

CLS Cell Line Service GmbH was founded in Germany in 1998 and has been certified several times by the ISO 9001 quality management standard. With more than 500 cell lines in their cell bank, they offer a wide range of cell lines, with a focus on human cell lines. An annual expansion of the product range, through certifications and collaborations allows a steady growth for more offerings in Life Science and basic medical research.

The daily microscopic inspection of cell lines for quantitation and quality control has produced an enormous amount of image material, which was used in the teaching and resource Atlas of Living Cell Cultures (Prof. Dr. Toni Lindl) published in 2013.

CLS offers a wide range of services through ongoing training, e.g. testing for mycoplasma contamination or performing transfections.

Products like genomic RNA and DNA, cell lysates and snap frozen cell pellets are generated from the cell lines.

The goal of CLS is to create an understanding of the million-fold processes within a single cell that will lead to insights into disease. This will be achieved by using permanent and primary cell lines, which have evolved as an essential part of basic research. This approach is expected to improve therapeutic and drug developments. In addition, in vitro experiments on cell lines can replace a large number of animal experiments and offer a future-oriented alternative.

Products

Cells

The more than 500 different cell lines are divided into subcategories. To give some examples:

B-LCL (lymphoblastoid) cell lines which are produced from native B lymphocytes, by infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). After EBV induced transformation, the B-LCL can be maintained in continuous cell culture.

CLS has more than 375 human cell lines in its portfolio, including various tumor cell lines, like breast cancer, urinary bladder tumor, leukemia and lymphoma cells.

The fluorescence-tagged cell lines with subcategories of HeLa Kyto cells fluorescence-tagged, HeLa R19 Flpln TREXs, NRK cells fluorescence-tagged and U-2 OS genome-edited cell lines form another product category.

Production cells: A few cell lines (e.g.: CHO-K1 and ACE2) are best suited for gene expression and upscaling production of recombinant proteins. These systems have great importance in biotechnology and pharmaceutical-medical applications.

Cell lines for rare diseases: Rare diseases are defined as serious diseases that affect a small number of people. More precisely, less than 5 people out of 10,000 people in the EU, are affected by the respective disease. Since there are more than 6000 different rare diseases in the EU, the total number of people affected is high, despite the rarity of each individual disease. Thus, it can be assumed that there are about 30 million affected people in the EU, which reflects the need for cell lines as a basis for research (German Federal Ministry of Health). CLS aims to establish a cell line bank to enable rare diseases and their biological and systematic genetic investigations. This should enable the development of better diagnostic and therapeutic tools. For this purpose, the above mentioned immortalized B-CLC cell lines will be used.

DNA and cell pellets

Genomic DNA (gDNA) will be obtained from the CLS cell bank. For this purpose, cell lysis, the addition of protein kinase K and RNase A are used, and purification is performed via columns. Quantitation of gDNA is done by absorbance measurement in NanoDrop. Storage is in TE buffer and shipment is at room temperature. The obtained gDNA can be used for PCR and Southern blot application, furthermore for the determination of single nucleotide polymorphisms, the preparation of a DNA library, as well as for gene expression studies.

Medai Supplements

CLS offers two new products in the area of media and supplements: SciNX is a chemically defined, serum-, protein- and animal component-free medium for continuous standard culture of adherent as well as suspension cell lines. SciNX delivers optimal results in the production of recombinant proteins and exosomes. SciN4Vero is also a chemically defined, serum- and animal component-free medium supplemented with recombinant human growth factors. The unique formulation is used to propagate the proprietary VERO-CDM. The low protein content (<2 mg/L) facilitates recombinant protein and/or virus production.

Furthermore, CLS offers dissociation solutions, differentiation media, freezing media, human platelet lysates, iPSC media, conditioned media, buffers and solutions, serum-free cell culture media, and supplements and cell culture media represent the available subcategories.

Exosomes

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles produced by most cell lines in vivo and in vitro. They have the important function to serve for cellular communication e.g. as transporters for proteins. This task, as well as their function as biomarkers, is becoming increasingly important for functional characterization or drug delivery. They are subject to various strict quality controls, whereby purity is controlled, among other things. Exosomes from human cell lines of well-characterized tumor cell lines (e.g.: Colon adenocarcinoma ↔ HT-29 & HCT116), as well as well-characterized animal cell lines of various organisms such as: Rat colon carcinoma ↔ CC531, are available.

Kits

Micronucleus assays are used to detect chromosomal damage and damage to the spindle apparatus performed on dividing cells in vivo or in vitro. This test was developed to detect genotoxic potential.

The WST-1 solution is used to determine the proliferation of cell lines and cells. The determination is performed by a color reaction, which can only take place through viable cells. The absorbance at 420-480 nm correlates with the number of viable cells.

Service

CLS offers various services for cell cultures, such as bulk filling, or the establishment of cell lines from tissue or blood. Furthermore, a service for immunocytochemistry is offered, i.e. for immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, cell banking and transfections. Other services, as well as individual orders, are available upon request.