Institute of Experimental Medicine CAS

Published 02. 12. 2020

Researchers from the Department of Molecular Biology of Cancer IEM CAS, headed by Pavel Vodicka, MD, Ph.D., are the co-authors of two papers published in Nature Protocols.

The paper "Minimum Information for Reporting on the Comet Assay (MIRCA): recommendations for describing comet assay procedures and results" was published online on October 26, 2020, and the paper "An optimized comet-based in vitro DNA repair assay to assess base and nucleotide excision repair activity" was published online on November 16, 2020.

These papers were crafted as part of a long-term international cooperation, which culminated in the 4-year project hCOMET - The comet assay as a human biomonitoring tool, which was completed in autumn 2020. The hCOMET project, led by prof. Andrew Collins was funded by the COST Association. The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is a pan-European intergovernmental framework that supports breakthrough scientific and technological developments leading to new concepts and products and thereby contributes to strengthening Europe’s research and innovation capacities.

The hCOMET project was a network comprising researchers who are active in human biomonitoring, to investigate levels of DNA damage and its repair using a comet assay. The main goal of the project was to carry out pooled analyzes of the combined data from all available studies. In addition, hCOMET addressed the issue of inter-laboratory reproducibility of the comet assay by devising standard protocols, for both DNA damage and DNA repair measurement, coordinating ring studies to test these protocols, and offering training courses and exchanges, so that in the future, a comparison of results from different studies can be facilitated. The application of the assay to different human cell types using different storage conditions and isolation techniques was also examined.

The above-mentioned papers are, among others, proof of a very successfully completed project. The paper "Minimum Information for Reporting on the Comet Assay (MIRCA): recommendations for describing comet assay procedures and results" represents guidelines to improve the description, analysis, and reporting of experimental data generated using the comet assay. Link 

The paper "An optimized comet-based in vitro DNA repair assay to assess base and nucleotide excision repair activity" represents a detailed protocol of the method for functional measurement of base and nucleotide excision repair activity, with many applications in human biomonitoring, in in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as in intervention studies. Link 

Authors from IEM CAS (Pavel Vodicka, M.D., Ph.D., Sona Vodenkova, Ph.D., and Alena Opattova, Ph.D.) thank all co-authors for the excellent teamwork, without which it would not be possible to achieve such success.

Other Links:

• The hCOMET project
  
• COST Association
  

Author: Sona Vodenkova, Ph.D. / Published: Petr Caletka