At the present time there is only one proper way to obtain any of the SUM human breast cancer cell lines.
A few years ago, a company called BioIVT acquired Asterand Inc. of Detroit Michigan. Many years ago, as a result of the great demand for the SUM cell lines, the University of Michigan entered into an exclusive license agreement with Asterand making them the sole distributor of the SUM Breast Cancer Cell Lines. Since Asterand was acquired by BioIVT they became the exclusive distributor of the cell lines. Any of the SUM lines can be ordered through their web site at: https://bioivt.com/sum-breast-cancer-cell-lines
I understand that the prices that BioIVT charges for the cell lines seem high and I’ve tried to address this for SUM line users in a few ways. One was the development of this web site. Thus, purchasing SUM lines from BioIVT gets you an automatic registration for the SUM Cell Line Knowledge Base, which is unlike any information resource available for any cancer cell line. Hopefully, this resource provides the extra value that makes the BioIVT prices seem more reasonable.
For a discussion about why it is important, indeed essential, that investigators obtain cell lines from a reputable source, please read my blog.
