Evercyte shares key cell NextGen data with Human Protein Atlas and clients

Over the past two months, Evercyte researchers have contributed transcriptome analysis on several important human immortalized cell lines, telomerase immortalized terted cell lines into HPA. This co-operation with the Swedish-based Atlas project has also provided important new insights into the next generation sequencing (NGS) data of Evercyte cell lines.

This means Evercyte is now able to offer download of NGS transcriptome data on hTERT immortalized and telomerased cell lines from its website, potentially enabling functionality and quality to be further enhanced.

Next generation sequencing

Transcriptomic data give an overview of key functionalities of a cell type. In order to provide such data on Evercyte cell lines, next generation sequencing has been performed in collaboration with the Atlas team in Stockholm, with data made publicly available on six telomerased cell lines in their undifferentiated, proliferating state.

The human cell lines contributed by Evercyte are renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (RPTEC/TERT1), an important model for assessing kidney function and toxicology, umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC/TERT2), a premier model for cardiovascular research, myoblasts (LHCN-M2) for muscle and sarcopenia research, adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASC/TERT1) for the fields of adipogenesis, chondrogenesis and osteogenesis, corneal epithelial cells (hTCEpi) for eye research, as well as brain-derived fibroblasts (HBF/TERT88).

Data on further cell lines and differentiation states are already in Evercyte’s pipeline to be fed into the Atlas database and made available for download.

New quality control

“This represents an important further step in the rigorous quality control system that Evercyte has in place for generating and banking cells according to GCCP guidelines,” said Dr. Johannes Grillari, Evercyte’s Chief Scientific Officer.

“Our collaboration with The HPA with its high-throughput NGS facilities, antibody production and testing provides the perfect vehicle for generating and disseminating such data,” Dr. Grillari pointed out.

“When selecting cell lines to work with, customers can use these new data, that can be downloaded from the Evercyte website, to identify genes that are expressed by our cell lines. This will help them to identify the suitability of our cells for their own purposes and thus lead to higher satisfaction with the product. Such data are not available in such a systematic and easily accessible way for other cell lines on the market,” he said.

Differentiated data

Dr. Grillari cautioned that cells were currently being characterized under basal conditions during proliferation. That means that there might still be differences in gene and protein expression profiles between growth arrested cells and treated or fully differentiated ones.

“Such differentiation data will be generated within this collaboration. However, even the data currently available represent an important first step towards our ultimate direction of having as fully characterized cells as possible,” said the Evercyte CSO.

About Evercyte

Evercyte GmbH, based in Vienna, manufactures a range of innovative cell-based products; including primary/normal cells; telomerase (hTERT) immortalized or life span extended cells and differentiated cells from immortalized or normal stem cells.

Recently, Evercyte has become a key player in the development of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from human urine as a non-invasive source for generating cell material. The company also offers a range of cell-based assays, used in development of drug screening strategies and other applications. It also develops assays to individual specification to help customers reduce their time and spend on drug discovery and development.

Systematically establishing and commercializing relevant cell model systems from donors of different genetic backgrounds, Evercyte’s Pharmacocellomics™ is also improving the predictability of substance efficiencies and side effects in the general population.

About The Human Protein Atlas

The Stockholm-based Human Protein Atlas (HPA) aims to create an open source interactive map showing all known human proteins and their precise are distribution around the body. It is also building a detailed picture of the proteins linked to cancer, those present in the bloodstream, and the targets for all approved drugs on the market.

The project was initiated in 2003 with funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, with inputs from leading Swedish universities and the Science for Life Laboratory in Uppsala and Stockholm. The project has formal collaborations with groups in India, South Korea, Japan, China, Germany, France, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy as well as contributions from many other countries.

Based on 13 million annotated images, the atlas shows both proteins restricted to certain tissues, such as the brain, heart, or liver, and those present in all. As an open access resource, it is expected to help drive the development of new diagnostics and drugs, but also to provide basic insights in normal human biology.

The first version of the HPA website launched in 2005 with protein expression data based on some 700 antibodies. Since then, each new release has included more data, also adding new functionalities and features. The current v.16 has added a new Cell Atlas with subcellular localization corresponding to over 12,000 protein-coding genes, together with a new approach for visualization of antibody validation and the inclusion of transcriptomic data from the FANTOM5 program.

More information at: http://www.proteinatlas.org