ECACC: Supporting life science research and technology transfer
For many years ECACC has worked closely with UK Research Councils, charities and universities’ Technology Transfer (Tech Transfer) offices to increase the range and relevance of the cell lines available from ECACC for life science research. By working closely with a single contact within a research establishment we are able to fast-track new cell lines into ECACC, making them available for the wider research community as quickly as possible. Not only does this benefit researchers who are striving to deliver potentially improved outcomes for health and disease prevention, but also provides a global profile for the depositing scientists and their associated publications. This encourages enquiries for commercial licencing which are referred back to the depositing organisation.
The conditions of deposit and subsequent distribution by ECACC always ensure that we will provide the cell lines for research use only. Requests for commercialising cell lines are passed to the depositor’s Tech Transfer office so they can negotiate their own terms.
ECACC uses distribution partners such as Merck (global), DSPharma (Japan) and Cell Bank Australia in order to improve access to research scientists on a global scale. Cell lines are banked, quality control tested and authenticated at ECACC prior to being made available to the research community.
There are many befits of working together; for ECACC it results in an increase of current, relevant cell lines in the collection, and cell lines can be added very quickly to the collection due to the pre-negotiated agreements with depositors. For universities and tech transfer offices the benefits are numerous:
- Generate commercial licencing opportunities through global marketing of cell line
- ECACC will carry out quality control and maintain stock for distribution
- ECACC will provide convenient access for research which increases number of literature citations
- Increase Depositor/Organisation profile globally
- Benefit from ECACC’s global partnerships with Merck and DS Pharma (Japan)
ECACC currently has standardised deposit agreements with:
|
Tech Transfer Office |
Example Cell lines |
|---|---|
|
MRC- technology for Medical Research Council funded work |
Mouse Myeloma NS0 and the OX series of hybridomas |
|
Cambridge Enterprises Ltd – for Cambridge University |
Karpas series of lymphoma and leukaemia cell lines; HeLa-Mitotrap FRB expressing cell lines |
|
Imperial Innovations – for Imperial College, London |
HCA series of colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines |
|
Ximbio for Cancer Research UK funded work |
A2780, PEA and PEO series of ovarian cancer cell lines |
|
Inscreenex GmbH |
rCHO lines expressing GPCR vectors |
To find out more about the depositing process visit the deposit with us page online. If you are interested in working with ECACC to support life science and technology transfer contact us by email: CultureCollections.businessE@PHE.gov.uk