Stop the swap: SNPTrace genotyping as routine authentication for human organoid biobank lines
- 1Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX USA
- 2Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX USA
Abstract
Objective: Human organoid lines can be expanded long-term and are increasingly shared through centralized biobanks and core facilities, making rigorous identity tracking essential for reproducible research. Mislabeling and cross-contamination remain persistent risks in cell culture, with historical and ongoing evidence that misidentification can go undetected undermining biological conclusions. Here, we describe the implementation of the SNPTrace platform for genetic authentication of human organoid lines within a biobank/core workflow.
Results: Using SNPTrace, we generated 96-SNP genotypes for 108 human organoid lines from 49 individual donors and evaluated performance across core tracking scenarios. We compared organoids derived from multiple regions of the same organ within a donor, organoids generated from different organs from the same donor, and serial passages of the same organoid line. Across these conditions, SNPTrace profiles were stable and concordant within donor, supporting use of SNPTrace as a practical genetic “tag” for donor-level identity and longitudinal line tracking in a core facility. In addition, sex calls from allosomal markers matched recorded metadata, providing an orthogonal check on sample annotation and aiding identification of potential discrepancies. Integrating SNPTrace into routine biobank QC enables standardized authentication of human organoid lines and supports reliable downstream sharing.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8.
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BibTeX
@article{zeng2026stop,
title = {{Stop the swap: SNPTrace genotyping as routine authentication for human organoid biobank lines}},
author = {Xi-Lei Zeng and Jianhong Hu and Manveer Kaur and Ming Zhu and Donna M. Muzny and Sarah E. Blutt},
journal = {BMC Research Notes},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Stop the swap: SNPTrace genotyping as routine authentication for human organoid biobank lines
AU - Xi-Lei Zeng
AU - Jianhong Hu
AU - Manveer Kaur
AU - Ming Zhu
AU - Donna M. Muzny
AU - Sarah E. Blutt
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/06
JO - BMC Research Notes
DO - 10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8
UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8
AB - Objective: Human organoid lines can be expanded long-term and are increasingly shared through centralized biobanks and core facilities, making rigorous identity tracking essential for reproducible research. Mislabeling and cross-contamination remain persistent risks in cell culture, with historical and ongoing evidence that misidentification can go undetected undermining biological conclusions. Here, we describe the implementation of the SNPTrace platform for genetic authentication of human organoid lines within a biobank/core workflow. Results: Using SNPTrace, we generated 96-SNP genotypes for 108 human organoid lines from 49 individual donors and evaluated performance across core tracking scenarios. We compared organoids derived from multiple regions of the same organ within a donor, organoids generated from different organs from the same donor, and serial passages of the same organoid line. Across these conditions, SNPTrace profiles were stable and concordant within donor, supporting use of SNPTrace as a practical genetic “tag” for donor-level identity and longitudinal line tracking in a core facility. In addition, sex calls from allosomal markers matched recorded metadata, providing an orthogonal check on sample annotation and aiding identification of potential discrepancies. Integrating SNPTrace into routine biobank QC enables standardized authentication of human organoid lines and supports reliable downstream sharing. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-026-07963-8.
SN - 1756-0500
ER -