Cell line engineering services

Ready access to custom engineered cell lines.​ 

Our CRISPR engineers bring a wealth of experience to tackling the toughest edits and rapidly deliver the cell lines you need to keep your project on track. We can support across the discovery workflow with expertly engineered cell lines to accelerate your research and development. Whether you need knock-outs, knock-ins, or point mutations, our specialists can develop and supply your custom gene-edited cell line in as little as 8 weeks.

Contact us to discuss your needs


Why work with Abcam?

  • Our cell engineering experts have over ten years of experience providing solutions for the most difficult projects.
  • ​​We offer a tailored service, successfully executing over 1,000 projects in 100+ distinct cell lines, including human and animal (rat and mouse) cancer and iPSC.
  • With optimized protocols and innovative editing strategies, we have a success rate of over 93% of all initiated projects, including knock-out and knock-ins (point mutations, large fragment insertions)​​

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How we can help

Using CRISPR-Cas9 technology our expert team will deliver the custom-engineered cells you need, including:

1. Knock-out (KO)
Removal of the ability of the cell to express a selected gene.

2. Point mutation (PM)
Substitution of single nucleotide base in the DNA sequence of a certain tissue or specific cell types.

3. Small fragment knock-in
Insertion of small DNA fragment by homologous recombination (HR), to support the understanding of both endogenous and overexpression of specific protein(s). 

4. Large fragment knock-in (KI)
Insertion of large DNA fragment by homologous recombination (HR), to support the understanding of both endogenous and overexpression of specific protein(s). 

5. Conditional knock-out (CKO)
Controlled elimination of a gene in a certain tissue or cell type at a specific time.

Engineered cell lines can be used to support a range of applications: 

  • Antibody validation: Knock-out validation is the industry gold standard for confirming antibody specificity. A knock-out cell line that does not express your protein of interest offers a true negative control.
  • Target validation and verification: For both small molecule and biologic drug discovery, our custom knock-outs can help confirm gene-disease relationship.
  • Pathway analysis: Custom engineered cell lines can help unravel the role of a target in a pathway and the resulting phenotype in cell function or disease.
  • Disease models: Introduction of mutations using CRISPR-mediated knock-ins create models that support the understanding of disease etiology and provide robust platforms for the identification of drug candidates.
  • Biomarker discovery: Knock-out and knock-in cell lines can identify drug response biomarkers and aid the discovery of disease biomarkers.

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      Creating your custom gene-edit: process and timeline

      Project consultation​

      Creating your custom cell line begins with a project consultation meeting, which includes an evaluation of your chosen cell line’s characteristics, such as target gene expression levels, and if modification of the target gene will impact cell cycle and growth pathways. You can either provide your own cell line or purchase a line through us or ATCC.

      Project initiation

      Project initiation occurs after receipt of your purchase order and includes a review of your project goals, determining your delivery timeline, and confirmation of shipment. 

      Strategy and design proposal

      After your project initiation, you will receive a design proposal that outlines the project strategy and information about the guide RNA(s) and donor design (if applicable) that will be used to create your custom gene edit. You will need to approve this report before we can start the project. Once we receive your approval, we will confirm the start date of your project.

      Cell line evaluation

      Your first milestone report will include an evaluation of cell culture conditions, mycoplasma test results, and checks for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and single-cell clonability. Transfection conditions for your desired cell line are also optimized at this stage.

      Transfection of cells

      We will regular updates detailing the transfection results and guide edit efficiency post-transfection. The cutting efficiency of the gRNAs are verified before proceeding to single-cell cloning. 

      Single-cell cloning

      Once the gRNA cutting efficiency has been validated, the transfected pool of cells will be sorted into single-cell clones. You will receive your milestones 2 & 3 progress report detailing the transfection and single-cell cloning results. 

      Clone selection and confirmation

      When the clones have grown to optimal confluency, selected clones will be picked for genotyping using either Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) or Sanger sequencing. Confirmed clones will be expanded and cryopreserved. 

      Final clone confirmation

      Once the final clone(s) have been selected, we will re-confirm the genotyping of the clone(s) as an added validation. This final validation process also includes cell viability after cryopreservation, cell morphology, and mycoplasma-negative results. You will receive a final report that summarizes the complete experimental strategy and results, including the final validation and shipment of your cell line. 

      Additional assay services

      We offer additional assay services after completion of your custom project, including:

      • Proteomic assays, ie western blot validation, ICC, flow cytometry, FACS, or ELISA
      • Exon sequencing
      • Genomic assays qPCR and ddPCR
      • Transcriptomics assays: RNA sequencing
      • Gene copy number
      • Biomarker identification
      • Cell expansion and cryopreservation
      If you require additional assay services with your custom cell engineering project, you can discuss the details with your dedicated project manager.

      Find out more about how we can support your project with customized proteomic reagents and assays.

      For more information on cell engineering services, take a look at some of our resources: