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Jamie Almeida (Fed)

The Biomarker and Genomic Sciences Group focuses on a variety of standards to improve measurements and diagnostics in the health care field including cancer biomarker standards and cell line authentication.

Research projects

  • Cell Line Authentication
    • Short tandem repeat (STR) targeted multiplex PCR assay development for African green monkey, mouse, and Chinese hamster cell lines.
    • Organized and led the Mouse Cell Line Authentication Consortium to validate 19 mouse STR markers for genotyping mouse cell lines for identification. The outcome of the consortium led to the development of a mouse STR profile repository on the NCBI BioSample Database and publication of the interlaboratory results from 12 participating laboratories. 
  • Early Detection Research Network (part of the National Cancer Institute)
    • Methylation of biomarkers for early detection of cancer.
    • Develop and optimize droplet digital PCR assays to measure methylation for these biomarkers.
  • Reference Materials
    • Quantitative PCR and droplet digital PCR measurements for Standard Reference Material 2373 (certified for HER2 copy number) and Reference Material 8366 (certified for MET and EGFR copy number).
    • Development of a reference material for a mouse allelic ladder to be used for allele call determination in mouse cell line authentication
    • Characterization of a reference material for methylation in cancer biomarkers.

Patents

Awarded 

  • Almeida, Jamie L., Cole, Ken D. Mouse Cell Line Authentication. US 9,556,482 B2, United States Patent and Trademark Office, 31 January 2017.

Pending 

  • Almeida, Jamie L., Cole, Ken D. Mouse Cell Line Authentication. US 2017/0101677 A1, United States Patent Application Publication, 13 April 2017.

Awards

  • NIST Judson C. French Award, “for development of copy number standard reference material SRM 2373 for diagnosing cancer”, 2016
  • US Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, “for development of a method for mouse cell line authentication”, 2015
  • NIST Safety Award, “for developing and promoting biosafety training”, 2012

Publications

Interlaboratory study to validate a STR profiling method for intraspecies identification of mouse cell lines

Author(s)
Jamie L. Almeida, Aleksandra Dakic, Karin Kindig, Maikan Kone, Deborah L. Letham, Scott Langdon, Ruth Peat, Jayamalini Holding-Pillai, Erin Hall, Mark Ladd, Megan Shaffer, Heath Berg, Jinliang Li, Georges Wigger, Steven P. Lund, Carolyn R. Steffen, Barbara Fransway, Bob Geraghty, Manuela Natoli, Beth Bauer, Susanne M. Gollin, Dale Lewis, Yvonne A. Reid
The Consortium for Mouse Cell Line Authentication was formed to validate Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers for intraspecies identification of mouse cell lines

Development and Interlaboratory Evaluation of a NIST Reference Material RM 8366 for EGFR and MET Gene Copy Number Measurements

Author(s)
Hua-Jun He, Biswajit Das, Megan H. Cleveland, Chen Li, Corinne Camalier, Liang-Chu Liu, Kara L. Norman, Andrew Fellowes, Christopher McEvoy, Steven P. Lund, Jamie L. Almeida, Carolyn R. Steffen, Chris Karlovich, P. M. Williams, Kenneth D. Cole
The National Institute Standard and Technology (NIST) Reference Material RM 8366 was developed to improve the quality of gene copy measurements of EGFR

Certified DNA Reference Materials to Compare HER2 Gene Amplification Measurements Using Next- Generation Sequencing Methods

Author(s)
Chih-Jian Lih, Robin D. Harrington, Kneshay Harper, David J. Sims, Paul McGregor, Corinne Camalier, Han Si, Biswajit Das, P. M. Williams, Hua-Jun He, Jamie L. Almeida, Steven P. Lund, Steven J. Choquette, Kenneth D. Cole
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials 2373 is a set of genomic DNA samples prepared from five breast cancer

Standards for cell line authentication and beyond

Author(s)
Jamie L. Almeida, Kenneth D. Cole, Anne L. Plant
Different genomic technologies have been applied to cell line authentication, but only one method (short tandem repeat profiling) has been the subject of a
View more Publications

Patents

Mouse Cell Line Authentication

NIST Inventors
Jamie Almeida and Kenneth (Ken) D. Cole
Patent Description Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers is a method for genetic profiling. It involves four to five nucleotide repeats allowing scientists to obtain relatively precise and accurate information. For example, several genetic conditions are linked to three nucleotide repeats. Cell line
View All Patents

Selected Publications

Interlaboratory study to validate a STR profiling method for intraspecies identification of mouse cell lines
Standards for cell line authentication and beyond
Created October 9, 2019, Updated March 27, 2020