Abstract
Genomics, proteomics, vaccinology, transgenics, stem cell—advances in all these areas critically stack on the shoulders of tissue culture, our ability to cultivate an organism's living cells in plastic dishes. Nutritional trial and error for decades of painstaking cell gardening laid the groundwork for the several thousand human primary cell explants and immortal tumor lines available to modern biotechnology. Now, the 50-year-old problem of cell line misidentification from cell contamination, mislabeling, or, in some cases, conscious deceit, has a brand-new tool for cell and individual validation, a composite short tandem repeat (STR, also called genomic microsatellite) genotype signature (1). The new advances, the latest in cell identification technologies, represent the most advanced and powerful forensic approach to dispense with the embarrassing, expensive, and maddening cell contamination that occurs in biomedical laboratories.
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