'Official' Cell Line Identifiers

Question

[Russh]

Hi - quick question is there a set of 'official' cell-line identifiers (akin to HGNC/EntrezGene gene symbols etc). I say 'official', because I appreciate there may be more than one attempt at fixing cell line names.

All the best Russ

Answer 1

[Egon Willighagen]

I think your best bet at this moment is the Cell Line Ontology. You can use the resource URIs as identifiers.

Answer 2

[Christof Winter]

If the cell line is available at ATCC, I would use their designation name. The complete cell line collection can be searched here.

Answer 3

[Rajarshi Guha]

You could try using ATCC codes, though they may not cover all variants of cell lines.

Answer 4

[Amos Bairoch]

Since 2017 there is another answer to this question: you should use the cell line Research Resource Identifiers (RRID) which are available in the Cellosaurus

Background info:

The Resource Identification Initiative (https://www.force11.org/group/resource-identification-initiative) (RII) aims to promote research resource identification, discovery, and reuse. The RII introduced the concept of Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) - persistent and unique identifiers for referencing a research resource. A critical goal of the RII is the widespread adoption of RRIDs to cite biological resources such as antibodies, cell lines, organisms or tools in the biomedical literature and other places that reference their generation or use. RRIDs use established community identifiers where they exist. To ensure they are recognizable, unique, and traceable, identifiers are prefixed with "RRID:", followed by a second tag that indicates the source authority that provided it (e.g. "CVCL" for the Cellosaurus, example: RRID:CVCL_0033)

The Cellosaurus (https://web.expasy.org/cellosaurus/) is a knowledge resource on cell lines. It aims to describe all cell lines used in biomedical research. Its scope encompasses both vertebrates and invertebrates. For each cell line, it provides a wealth of information, cross-references, and literature citations. Among its many uses, the Cellosaurus is a key resource to help researchers identify potentially contaminated/misidentified cell lines, thus contributing to improving the quality of research in the life sciences.