Variety and applications of Nucleic Acid products

Genetic researchers are now learning more about how individual genes work and what they do. They also study the role that variations in genes play in disease and are working to identify the genetic and environmental causes of common illnesses such as asthma, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. The results of such studies will lead to many advances in disease prevention and treatment. New types of drugs are being created based on our increased understanding of genes; these newer drugs target certain sites in the body and they may therefore have fewer side effects than many of today's medicines. Other new types of medicines will be tailored to an individual's unique genetic profile.

The European Collection of  Authenticated Cell Cultures (ECACC) provides nucleic acids in a range of  formats from its many hundreds of human cell lines to help researchers with their studies. High quality, high molecular weight genomic DNA can be supplied in a standard 5ug format. As a bespoke service, any amount of DNA (milligram quantities) can also be requested.

In addition, ECACC also provides a range of human Random Control DNA panels. These comprise 96 control DNA samples (2mg of DNA at 100ng/ml) arranged in a 96 well plate. Five different panels are available.

We also provide RNA and cDNA from all of our human cell lines. These formats can be used to screen the human cell line transcriptome for the presence of interesting biomarkers expressed at the RNA level. This can be done using cost effective PCR based methods before deciding to utilise more expensive protein based assays. The RNA has an RNA Integrity number typically above 9.7. The cDNA is fully quality controlled including an assay to determine the absence of contaminating genomic DNA.

The genomic DNA, RNA and cDNA formats are available as standard items on each cell line web page. For larger amounts of these nucleic acids please enquire through the Culture Collections website.