Disease models

Disease models, including cell lines and xenograft models, are crucial resources needed for research to understand chordoma biology and identify new treatment strategies. In the past, lack of access to these models posed a major barrier to advancing chordoma research and prevented many researchers from entering the field. To overcome this barrier, the Chordoma Foundation invests in developing new models and operates repositories to make them easily accessible to the research community.

Importantly, all models available from Chordoma Foundation repositories are rigorously characterized to ensure that they are properly identified and are valid models of chordoma. This strict emphasis on quality helps prevent the use of misidentified models, a widespread problem in cancer research that wastes resources and leads to misleading and irreproducible results.

The Foundation aims to develop a diverse collection of models that represent the many clinical variations of the disease so that all chordoma patients stand to benefit from advances in research. This includes models derived from primary, recurrent, and metastatic tumors of multiple anatomic locations from children and adults.

Cell Line Repository

The Foundation partners with the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), the world’s largest and most reputable cell line repository, to maintain and distribute cell lines through their global distribution channels.

Currently, available cell lines are listed below and on the ATCC website. Click the name of a cell line for more details including clinical data, molecular characterization, and culture instructions.

To request cell lines requiring an MTA, contact researchteam@chordoma.org. Requests involving multiple disease models that use identical MTA terms (such as U-CH cell lines) may be consolidated into a single MTA document. In such cases, please specify each model requested in the draft MTA.

PDX Repository

The Foundation partners with South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START), to maintain and distribute patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of chordoma.

Currently, available PDX models are listed below. Click the name of the model for more details including clinical data, molecular characterization, and culture instructions.

To request models contact researchteam@chordoma.org. Requests involving multiple disease models that use identical MTA terms (such as CF or SF PDX models) may be consolidated into a single MTA document. In such cases, please specify each model requested in the draft MTA.

 

Access to Genomic Data

Genomic data generated from our cell lines and PDX models is available here in Cavatica.  Please create an account and log in then request access to the chordoma data.  Contact researchteam@chordoma.org if you need assistance.

Acknowledgments

We’ve expanded our model repositories to include a number of different cell lines and PDX models that are being made available to the research community.  We would like to thank all of the patients, researchers, and philanthropic supporters who have contributed to this effort.

News

• New $25,000 prize offered for pediatric chordoma cell lines – 2017
• Longtime goal achieved with 10th valid chordoma cell line – 2016
• Wall Street Journal recognizes CF cell line prize as a model for stimulating research – 2012
• First cell line prize awarded – 2011