What is the Primary Airway Cell Biobank?

First of its kind in Canada, the PACB is a non-for-profit facility providing researchers worldwide with standardized, high-quality primary airway cells from both normal donors and a large variety of airway diseased donors.听

The PACB is a biobank certified by the , affiliated with the听International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).

Why use primary epithelial cells?

Highly differentiated primary epithelial cells are essential for studies of airway physiology/pathophysiology, cell biology, inflammation, mucosal immunity, and for translational research to develop new therapeutics. While cell lines are not representative of genetic variation and fail to differentiate into the various cell types found听in vivo听such as ciliated and goblet cells. Therefore, primary cells are considered as 鈥渢he gold standard鈥� when testing hypotheses regarding disease pathogenesis and preclinical development of new therapeutics.

The reduced accessibility to primary human bronchial epithelial cells (HBE) in terms of high cost and low variability discourages investigators, which has a negative impact on the progress of basic research and drug development, while there is a critical need for听drugs for CF patients in particular.

The cells distributed by PACB, isolated from a large variety of donors with different genetic backgrounds, are essential for improving our understanding of CF and other respiratory diseases and for translational research to develop new therapeutic agents.

The facility is run and maintained by a team of dedicated CF researchers. For more information visit our Organization Page or Contact PACB.

听