Primary cells are isolated directly from tissue. They have a finite lifespan. Immortalised lines carry a genetic modification, such as hTERT overexpression or SV40 Large T antigen, that bypasses replicative senescence and allows indefinite expansion. Immortalised lines offer reproducibility and scalability. Primary cells better reflect in vivo physiology but require fresh isolation from donors.
Cells & Cell Culture
Cell Lines
Engineered and immortalised cell lines for reproducible gene function and drug screening studies
These lines give you a defined, expandable system for mechanistic work, with authenticated identity and consistent behaviour across passages.
Cell lines span cancer-derived lines, immortalised normal tissue lines, and disease-relevant models across human, mouse, rat, hamster, and canine backgrounds for your project. Engineered lines with stable gene overexpression or knockdown are validated for specific gene targets in defined cell backgrounds such as HeLa or neuroblastoma. These pre-built models save you months of clonal selection work.
Primary-cell-derived lines immortalised by SV40 or hTERT cover various tissue types. Available immortalised cells include hepatocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, epithelial cells, neural subtypes and many more. These lines sit between primary cells and fully transformed cancer cell lines. Choose them when you need a more physiological phenotype for long-term experiments. Standard reference lines such as HeLa, HEK293 and MCF7 are also available to you as authenticated stocks.
Choosing between cell line types
- Need a specific gene knocked out or stably overexpressed in a defined background: engineered stable cell lines with pre-validated knockdown and knockout models in HeLa, neuroblastoma, and other backgrounds are available to you off the shelf. This saves you months of clonal selection work.
- Need an immortalised normal tissue line rather than a cancer model: hTERT- or SV40-immortalised primary-cell-derived lines cover hepatocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and epithelial cells across multiple species. These give you more differentiated character than cancer lines.
- Working with a rare or specialised tissue type: immortalised lines spanning hundreds of tissue types across human and rodent species are available to you, including less common lines on request.
- Need a fresh batch of standard reference lines (HeLa, HEK293, MCF7, etc.): browse our catalogue to see which ones are available at BioCat.
Applications
Target validation and gene function
Stable knockout or knockdown lines, often made with CRISPR-Cas9 tools, let you confirm phenotypic changes more reliably than transient transfection.
Oncology and cancer biology
Cancer-derived lines such as HeLa, MCF7, and A549 support proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and drug sensitivity studies before you move to animal models.
Recombinant protein production
Stable HEK293 and CHO lines expressing a gene of interest give you secreted recombinant proteins with consistent yields and human-compatible glycosylation.
Toxicology and drug metabolism screening
Hepatocyte-like and other tissue-specific lines model drug-induced toxicity and metabolic pathways, giving you an early readout before animal testing.
Disease and tissue-specific modelling
Lines from neural, endothelial, and other specialised tissues, alongside iPSC-derived cells, help you model disease mechanisms in a relevant background.
Assay development and high-throughput screening
Reporter and engineered lines with stable backgrounds give you consistent, scalable readouts for compound screening across large plate formats.
Product Catalog
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Immortalized Primary Cells
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Cancer Cells & Common Experimental Cell Lines
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Stable Cell Lines
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Fluorescent Cell Lines
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Reporter Cell Lines
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Cas9 & dCas9 Expressing Cell Lines
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CRISPR KO Cell Lines
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Packaging Cell Lines
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Specialized Cell Lines
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Frequently asked questions
Short tandem repeat (STR) profiling compares a panel of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the cell line against a reference profile. Cross-contamination between cell lines is well documented, so STR authentication confirms that the line being used matches the claimed identity. Major repositories now require STR data, and journals increasingly require authentication before publication.
You cannot detect mycoplasma contamination by visual inspection. The bacteria are too small to see and do not cause turbidity. PCR-based detection kits that target conserved mycoplasma 16S rRNA sequences are sensitive and rapid, giving results within a few hours. DAPI staining of fixed cultures can also reveal extranuclear fluorescence characteristic of mycoplasma. Testing every two to four weeks is standard practice.
Use cancer cell lines when the research question is specifically about cancer biology, oncogene function, or cancer pharmacology. For toxicology, metabolic studies, or modelling normal tissue responses, hTERT-immortalised lines derived from normal tissue work better. They lack the extensive chromosomal rearrangements and metabolic rewiring seen in cancer cells, giving a more physiologically relevant baseline.
Product catalogs
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