Understanding how cancer cell lines evolve in the lab, and what to do about it.

Cancer cell lines are the workhorses of cancer research, but scientists often struggle to reproduce others' cell line-based results. A new study from the Golub laboratory at the Broad Institute credits evolution as a key culprit behind this replication problem.

Here, Uri Ben-David and Todd Golub discuss their efforts to measure how much cancer cell lines evolve in the laboratory, how that evolution affects cell lines' responses to drugs, and what cancer researchers should do to adapt their approach to using cell lines in their work. They also introduce a new tool, Cell STRAINER, that helps scientists benchmark their cell lines.

Paper cited: Ben-David U, et al. Genetic and transcriptional evolution alters cancer cell line drug response. Nature. Online August 8, 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0409-3.

Copyright Broad Institute, 2018. All rights reserved.