Characterization of novel low passage primary and metastatic colorectal cancer cell lines

In vitro models are essential to understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. Many efforts to establish and characterize primary CRC cell lines have been published, most describing a small number of novel cell lines. However, there remains a lack of a large panel of uniformly established and characterized cell lines. To this end we established 20 novel CRC cell lines, of which six were derived from liver metastases. Genetic, genomic and transcriptomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines. All data are made publically available upon publication. By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles, we generated an overall profile of the alterations in the major CRC-related signaling pathways. The combination of mutation profiles with genome, transcriptome and methylome data means that these low passage cell lines are among the best characterized of all CRC cell lines. This will allow researchers to select model cell lines appropriate to specific experiments, facilitating the optimal use of these cell lines as in vitro models for CRC. All cell lines are available for further research.