Agilent, Cell Line Genetics Collaborate

Agilent Technologies Inc. announce a collaboration with Cell Line Genetics, Inc (CLG). CLG will develop high-throughput, genomic characterization workflows to confirm and monitor the integrity of cell lines for translational and regenerative medicine research. The workflows will be based upon Agilent’s custom, targeted CGH+SNP microarrays and SureFISH technology.

“Cell Line Genetics customers in the regenerative medicine research market include leading research institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies,” said Victor Fung, Agilent’s senior director of Global Marketing for the Genomics Solutions Division. “These diverse customers will benefit from services better tailored to meet their needs. In addition, Cell Line Genetics can better control operating costs because targeted array CGH designs can focus probe density where it matters most, enabling much faster data interpretation than SNP microarrays. Speed of analysis is particularly important in this high-throughput environment.

CLG selected Agilent’s genome-wide CGH+SNP microarrays for their capability, in a predictable high-throughput environment, to detect amplifications, deletions and cell line clonality with high sensitivity. CLG will use FISH assays to confirm aberrations identified down to the single-cell level. This approach provides a robust, best-in-class means of characterizing genome integrity and purity.

For cancer cell line characterization, CLG will offer array CGH (aCGH) services as it is able to simultaneously detect a large number of anomalies more accurately, with higher sensitivity, and with better coverage than traditional cytogenetics. In addition, when using aCGH, CLG can offer a faster turnaround time to customers.

After testing more than 15,000 stem cell lines, CLG found that 20 percent showed aneuploidy, and 60 to 70 percent of those were mosaic. Most significantly, the cells harboring genomic anomalies can have a proliferative advantage and overtake the culture, compromising the validity of study data and resulting in the loss of samples, time and funds.

“Collaborating with Agilent on custom microarray and SureFISH probe solutions gives us the most flexibility to innovate and expand our services,” said Rob Herrera, CEO and president, Cell Line Genetics. “For example, we can fortify our arrays in regions that we have identified as ‘integrity critical’ for even greater sensitivity. It allows us to easily design proprietary arrays and assays to support our customer’s research and translational needs.”