Importance of immortalized cells in biobanking

Biobank is a type of biorepository which stores humanbiological samples for use in research. Biobank hasThree main objectives that include of storage of frozen,standard of care and research applications. In orderto have consistent material throughout a researchproject, researchers need primary cells with an extendedreplicative capacity, or immortalized cells. Severalmethods exist for immortalizing mammalian cells inculture, include telomerase reverse transcriptase geneor viral genes. Viral genes, including Epstein-Barr virus,Simian virus 40 T antigen, adenovirus E1A and E1B, andhuman papillomavirus E6 and E7 induce immortalizationby a process known as viral transformation. Thusimmortalized cells provide research applications inbiobanks.Now Iranian Bioresource Centre (IBRC) is a biobank wichactive in immortalization cells and store the immortalizedsamples.