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The documentation, preservation and rescue of biological diversity increasingly uses living biological samples. Persistent associations between species, biosamples, such as tissues and cell lines, and the accompanying data are indispensable for using, exchanging and benefiting from these valuable materials. Explicit authentication of such biosamples by assigning unique and robust identifiers is therefore required to allow for unambiguous referencing, avoid identification conflicts and maintain reproducibility in research. A predefined nomenclature based on uniform rules would facilitate this process. However, such a nomenclature is currently lacking for animal biological material. We here present a first, standardized, human-readable nomenclature design, which is sufficient to generate unique and stable identifying names for animal cellular material with a focus on wildlife species. A species-specific human- and machine-readable syntax is included in the proposed standard naming scheme, allowing for the traceability of donated material and cultured cells, as well as data FAIRification. Only when it is consistently applied in the public domain, as publications and inter-institutional samples and data are exchanged, distributed and stored centrally, can the risks of misidentification and loss of traceability be mitigated. This innovative globally applicable identification system provides a standard for a sustainable structure for the long-term storage of animal bio-samples in cryobanks and hence facilitates current as well as future species conservation and biomedical research.

The European Bank for induced pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) was established in 2014 as a non-profit project for the banking, quality control, and distribution of human iPSC lines for research around the world. EBiSC iPSCs are deposited from diverse laboratories internationally and, hence, a key activity for EBiSC is standardising not only the iPSC lines themselves but also the data associated with them. This includes enabling unique nomenclature for the cells, as well as applying uniformity to the data provided by the cell line generator versus quality control data generated by EBiSC, and providing mechanisms to share personal data in a secure and GDPR-compliant manner. A joint approach implemented by EBiSC and the human pluripotent stem cell registry (hPSCreg®) has provided a solution that enabled hPSCreg® to improve its registration platform for iPSCs and EBiSC to have a pipeline for the import, standardisation, storage, and management of data associated with EBiSC iPSCs. In this work, we describe the experience of cell line data management for iPSC banking throughout the course of EBiSC’s development as a central European banking infrastructure and present a model for how this could be implemented by other iPSC repositories to increase the FAIRness of iPSC research globally.

The value of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) in regenerative medicine has yet to reach its full potential. The road from basic research tool to clinically validated PSC-derived cell therapy products is a long and winding one, leading researchers, clinicians, industry and regulators alike into undiscovered territory. All stakeholders must work together to ensure the development of safe and effective cell therapies. Similarly, utilization of hPSC in meaningful and controlled disease modeling and drug screening applications requires information on the quality and suitability of the applied cell lines. Central to these common goals is the complete documentation of hPSC data, including the ethical provenance of the source material, the hPSC line derivation, culture conditions and genetic constitution of the lines. Data surrounding hPSC is scattered amongst diverse sources, including publications, supplemental data, researcher lab books, accredited lab reports, certificates of analyses and public data repositories. Not all of these data sources are publicly accessible nor associated with metadata nor stored in a standard manner, such that data can be easily found and retrieved. The Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry (hPSCreg; https://hpscreg.eu/) was started in 2007 to impart provenance and transparency towards hPSC research by registering and collecting standard properties of hPSC lines. In this chapter, we present a short primer on the history of stem cell-based products, summarize the ethical and regulatory issues introduced in the course of working with hPSC-derived products and their associated data, and finally present the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry as a valuable resource for all stakeholders in therapies and disease modeling based on hPSC-derived cells.

Unambiguous cell line authentication is essential to avoid loss of association between data and cells. The risk for loss of references increases with the rapidity that new human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines are generated, exchanged, and implemented. Ideally, a single name should be used as a generally applied reference for each cell line to access and unify cell-related information across publications, cell banks, cell registries, and databases and to ensure scientific reproducibility. We discuss the needs and requirements for such a unique identifier and implement a standard nomenclature for hPSCs, which can be automatically generated and registered by the human pluripotent stem cell registry (hPSCreg). To avoid ambiguities in PSC-line referencing, we strongly urge publishers to demand registration and use of the standard name when publishing research based on hPSC lines.

A fast track “Hot Start” process was implemented to launch the European Bank for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) to provide early release of a range of established control and disease linked human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) lines. Established practice amongst consortium members was surveyed to arrive at harmonised and publically accessible Standard Operations Procedures (SOPs) for tissue procurement, bio-sample tracking, iPSC expansion, cryopreservation, qualification and distribution to the research community. These were implemented to create a quality managed foundational collection of lines and associated data made available for distribution. Here we report on the successful outcome of this experience and work flow for banking and facilitating access to an otherwise disparate European resource, with lessons to benefit the international research community. eTOC: The report focuses on the EBiSC experience of rapidly establishing an operational capacity to procure, bank and distribute a foundational collection of established hiPSC lines. It validates the feasibility and defines the challenges of harnessing and integrating the capability and productivity of centres across Europe using commonly available resources currently in the field.