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A prevalent neglect of environmental control in mammalian cell culture calls for best practices

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 5, pages 787–792 (2021)Cite this article

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In biomedical studies, the environmental conditions used in mammalian cell culture are often underreported, and are seldom monitored or controlled. Best-practice standards are urgently needed.

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Fig. 1: Prevalence of reporting of the environmental conditions of mammalian cell culture in 810 randomly selected biomedical studies published in 2014–2019.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Li laboratory for helpful discussions, and J. Xu and M. K. Y. Sicat for administrative support. We also thank members of the Izpisua Belmonte laboratory for their critical feedback on early versions of the manuscript. This work was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under award number OSR-2017-CRG-3412. Work in the Izpisua Belmonte laboratory was supported by The Moxie Foundation. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) supported the research of the Li laboratory, under award numbers BAS/1/1080-01 and URF/1/3412-01-01. KAUST supported the contribution of the Duarte laboratory through baseline funding to C.M.D.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Shannon G. Klein, Samhan M. Alsolami.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) and Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Shannon G. Klein, Alexandra Steckbauer, Silvia Arossa, Anieka J. Parry & Carlos M. Duarte

  2. Stem Cell and Regeneration Laboratory, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Samhan M. Alsolami, Gerardo Ramos Mandujano, Khaled Alsayegh & Mo Li

  3. King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Khaled Alsayegh

  4. Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte

  5. Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte

Authors
  1. Shannon G. Klein
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Contributions

S.G.K., S.M.A., A.S., S.A., A.J.P., K.A. and M.L. extracted metadata. S.G.K. and S.M.A. performed data analyses. S.G.K., S.M.A., M.L. and C.M.D. interpreted the results. M.L. and C.M.D. wrote the initial draft, with major contributions from S.G.K. and S.M.A. S.G.K. and S.M.A. revised the text during the review process and consolidated edits from all authors. C.M.D., J.C.I.B. and M.L. conceived and supervised the study. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Mo Li or Carlos M. Duarte.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Biomedical Engineering thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2, Methods, References and Table captions.

Supplementary Tables

Supplementary Tables 1–5.

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Klein, S.G., Alsolami, S.M., Steckbauer, A. et al. A prevalent neglect of environmental control in mammalian cell culture calls for best practices. Nat Biomed Eng 5, 787–792 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00775-0

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