The right culture

Using the right cell line might sound like a topic for Lab Work 101, but it is an issue at the heart of the reproducibility problem in preclinical research. A panel that met to discuss strategies for tackling the problem agreed that some emerging technologies for authenticating cell lines could make a difference, but found little common ground on which entities - journals, funding agencies or the private sector - should be responsible for mandating their use.

The panel was convened by the Global Biological Standards Institute in November as part of its inaugural BioPolicy Summit and focused on cell line authentication - a key factor identified in the institute's 2013 white paper on the need for standards in many areas of preclinical research. ...