Three laboratories of the Institute of Biotherapies possess tissue or cell banks, which are precious resources for researchers.
The Genethon DNA and Cell Bank
This structure makes the high quality services of a bank for cells and human products available to the scientific community. The first European bank for genetic diseases, it has 436 000 samples of DNA or cells from several hundred diseases (neuromuscular, ophthalmologic, dermatologic, endocrine, hematologic, neurologic, rheumatologic, diseases, as well as cancers and chromosomal disorders). This bank is open to all researchers in France or from abroad who wish to deposit samples or use its services (DNA extraction, establishment of cell lines, etc.).
Myobank: the tissue bank of the Institute of Myology
This bank collects, prepares, stores and distributes samples of human tissues. These samples come from persons affected with rare or neuromuscular diseases, but also from healthy individuals in order to provide control tissue. This biologic material is destined for studies in “in vitro” that will complement the knowledge acquired in animal models before “in vivo” clinical exploration. This service, which is listed in the European Biobank organization, is available on demand to all French and foreign research groups.
The hES bank of I-Stem
I-Stem has a cryobank which contains about 50 hES cell lines from about 15 monogenic diseases. These lines are imported from academic or private foreign laboratories or have been derived in France from embryos with mutations. Quality control tests are used to analyze their genetic identity and stability, and their undifferentiated state, their potential for differentiation as well has their lack of contamination .These processes are submitted to a perfect traceability as required by the Agence de Biomédicine. I-Stem’s hES bank is listed in the European Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry.
