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An international team led by Newcastle University has launched CellRepo, a database of species and strains that uses cellular barcodes to monitor and track engineered organisms
.
The database tracks and organizes digital data generated during cell engineering, reports a new study published in the journal Nature Communications
This resource is available globally, supports international collaboration, and has major safety advantages, such as limiting the effects of intentional or accidental releases of genetically modified microorganisms by more quickly tracing the origin and design details of biolabs
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CellRepo is built on version control, a concept in software engineering used to record and track changes to software code
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Scientists believe that version control for cell engineering will make engineering biology more open, reproducible, easier to track and share, and more trustworthy
The research team highlighted additional benefits of this community resource, such as traceability - providing accurate stress documentation and proper laboratory work
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The database also centralizes responsibility by making it easier to track and assign ownership
With access to global databases, researchers will be able to reproduce results and collaborate more easily
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Scientists also believe that the repository will increase transparency and reduce costs associated with loss of data and source code
Natalio Krasnogor, professor of computer science and synthetic biology at Newcastle University's School of Computing, said: "Engineering biology is not rocket science
.
It's very, very difficult
Synthetic biologist Dr.
Jonathan Tellechea, who worked on the project, said:
"In my projects, I always have some misidentification problems
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Fortunately, I was able to find them early on and fix them, but I can't imagine how many good projects fail or stall because of this
Leanne Hobbs, senior software engineer on the project, said: "As a software engineer from industry to academia, working on a project where I can put my skills to good use has been both a challenge and a joy
.
Version control is a staple of software engineering, and I'm proud that we're now bringing these tools to engineering biology
Dr Lenka Pelechova, a social scientist working in the Interdisciplinary Computation and Complex Biological Systems (ICOS) research group, added: "As a social scientist, I believe in responsible research and innovation frameworks in addressing societal expectations and opening up the public to new research and The conversational aspect of technology is critical
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In my opinion, these conversations should start early, and CellRepo supports this by making research transparent from the start
.
"
Co-author of the study, Professor Víctor de Lorenzo, from the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program at the National Biotecnología Centre in Madrid, Spain, said: "Decades of efforts to curb recombinant bacteria have taken into account the inherent tendency of engineered structures to mutate and overcome any kind of genetic firewall.
Little to no practical results
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Instead, CellRepo provides stable and unambiguous identification of specific strains that can be rigorously tracked and all available information related to the digital twin - should countermeasures be required, for ownership or liability purposes
.
"
Elena Velázquez, a doctoral student in Víctor de Lorenzo's lab, added:
"As a synthetic biologist who studies plasmids and strains from different sources all day, I'm used to finding out that the plasmids or strains I use in my experiments are not what I asked for
.
Of course, this cannot be blamed on those who are well-intentioned and selfless working scientists, and, because there isn't an easy way to tag and determine if the strain involved is the one they want
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CellRepo is a platform that represents an incredible advance in this problem, which could save researchers around the world a lot of time and useless work
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Furthermore, the global strain library that will be shared through this platform can be a valuable open source resource for samples and bridge new collaborations between different laboratories
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Thanks to CellRepo, scientists have the possibility to speed up their investigations and scientific reliability
.
"
Study co-author Simon Woods, Professor of Bioethics at Newcastle University's Centre for Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research, added: "Wide adoption of the CellRepo platform will make a significant and beneficial contribution to scientific culture as it provides a mechanism to ensure Traceability, transparency and reproducibility
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In addition, CellRepo is a novel science governance tool that supports responsible, innovative science
.
”
Jonathan Tellechea-Luzardo, Leanne Hobbs, Elena Velázquez, Lenka Pelechova, Simon Woods, Víctor de Lorenzo, Natalio Krasnogor.
Versioning biological cells for trustworthy cell engineering .
Nature Communications , 2022; 13 (1)
