A cloud-based repository that creates a digital fingerprint of engineered microorganisms has been successfully trialled.
An international team led by Newcastle University has launched CellRepo, a species and strain database that uses cell barcodes to monitor and track engineered organisms. Reported in a new study in the journal Nature Communications, the database keeps track and organises the digital data produced during cell engineering. It also molecularly links that data to the associated living samples.
Available globally, this resource supports international collaboration and has significant safety advantages, such as limiting the impact of deliberately or accidentally released genetically modified microorganisms by enabling faster tracing of organisms lab of origin and design details.
CellRepo is built on version control, a concept from software engineering that records and tracks changes to software code. The scientists believe that version control for cell engineering will make engineering biology more open, reproducible, easier to trace and share, and more trustworthy.
The research team highlights additional benefits of this community resource, such traceability – providing the exact documentation for a strain and properly crediting laboratory work. The database also puts responsibility in focus by making it easier to track and assign ownership.
With access to a global database, researchers will be able to reproduce results and collaborate more easily. The scientists also argue that the repository will improve transparency and reduce costs associated with data and source code losses.
Lead author, Natalio Krasnogor, Professor of Computer Science and Synthetic Biology at Newcastle University's School of Computing
