In collaboration with the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) and David Lynch, M.D., Ph.D. (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), our laboratory established the Friedreich’s Ataxia Cell Line Repository (FACLR), which houses numerous characterized FRDA and control cell lines that are available to the research community at cost.
The repository currently includes more than 80 FRDA and control fibroblast lines and 20 FRDA and control induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines. Included in the iPSC lines are three sets of patient and isogenic, CRISPR-Cas9-edited paired lines.
The iPSC lines included in the repository are evaluated for the following:
- Karyotype abnormalities
- Size and sequence of the GAA repeat tract
- Pluripotency marker expression
- Residual Sendai virus gene expression
- Ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm marker gene expression after trilineage differentiation
- Mycoplasma detection
To request the FACLR MTA template:
Lists of available fibroblast and iPSC lines can be found here:
Protocols for recovering iPSCs and fibroblasts from cryopreservation and culturing these cells can be found here: