Stem Cell Bank
The Barcelona Stem Cell Bank (B-SCB) is a node of the Spanish National Stem Cell Bank/ Banco Nacional de Líneas Celulares (BNLC), together with the Stem Cell Banks of Valencia (Centro de Investigación Principe Felipe) and Granada (Biobanco del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía).
The principal aim of the Barcelona Stem Cell Bank is the generation, characterization, banking and registry of pluripotent stem cell lines (PSC), both embryonic stem cells (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).
The activities of the B-SCB are:
- Generation and characterization of PSC
- Promotion of the basic research with PSC as disease models.
- Establishment of a roadmap for the clinical translation with PSC derivatives.
- Development of new methodologies related to the generation, culture, and characterization of PSC.
- Training activities related to the generation, culture, and characterization of PSC.
The B-SCB has a collection of PSC lines available to researchers who request them. Eighty-four lines have been generated and registered in the BNLC. Most of them (54) using fibroblasts as original cells. Cord blood and peripheral blood cells were used for generating 16 and 7 iPSC respectively. In 6 cases, keratinocytes were used as original cells and 1 iPSC line was generated from urine cells.
These lines have been generated using integrative (retrovirus and lentivirus, 52 iPSC lines) and non-integrative methods (Sendai virus -19 iPSC, episomal plasmids-11 iPSC and mRNA-2 iPSC).
The collection includes 37 cell lines generated from healthy donors and 47 lines from patients affected of more than 20 diseases that can be used as disease models, such as multiple sclerosis, Williams-Beuren syndrome, autism, or Parkinson disease among others.
