# Cellosaurus API
> Cellosaurus as an API, powered by the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics — the reference encyclopaedia of cell lines used in biomedical research. With more than 150,000 entries spanning cancer cell lines, hybridomas, induced pluripotent stem cells, and lines from hundreds of species, Cellosaurus is the authoritative catalogue researchers use to identify and validate the cell lines behind published experiments. Search the cell lines by name or keyword, getting each line's Cellosaurus accession (CVCL_…), name, category, species and disease; and read a cell line's full record — its name and synonyms, category (e.g. cancer cell line, hybridoma, stem cell), species with NCBI taxonomy id, sex, age, the disease it derives from with NCIt/ontology identifiers, the tissue or anatomical site of origin, its parent cell line and the number of derived child lines, the count of literature references and the many cross-references (to ATCC, DSMZ, ECACC, Wikidata and more), relevant web pages, and — critically for research reproducibility — whether the line is flagged PROBLEMATIC, meaning it has been misidentified or cross-contaminated, together with the explanatory notes. Ideal for laboratory quality control and cell-line authentication, biomedical and cancer research, data curation and reproducibility checks. Accessions look like CVCL_0030 (HeLa). Data from Cellosaurus (CC-BY 4.0).

## Authentication
All requests require your oanor API key in the `x-oanor-key` header. Get one at https://www.oanor.com/developer/keys.

```bash
curl -H "x-oanor-key: oanor_live_…" "https://api.oanor.com/cellosaurus-api/..."
```

## Pricing
- **Free** (Free) — 558 calls/Mo, 2 req/s
- **Starter** ($7/Mo) — 21,300 calls/Mo, 6 req/s
- **Pro** ($21/Mo) — 90,500 calls/Mo, 15 req/s
- **Mega** ($59/Mo) — 398,000 calls/Mo, 40 req/s

## Endpoints

### Cell lines

#### `GET /v1/cellline` — A cell line full record

**Parameters:**
- `id` (query, required, string) — Cellosaurus accession, e.g. CVCL_0030 Example: `CVCL_0030`

**Example:**
```bash
curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \
  "https://api.oanor.com/cellosaurus-api/v1/cellline?id=CVCL_0030"
```

**Response:**
```json
{
    "data": {
        "cell_line": {
            "age": "30Y6M",
            "sex": "Female",
            "url": "https://www.cellosaurus.org/CVCL_0030",
            "name": "HeLa",
            "created": "2012-04-04",
            "species": [
                {
                    "name": "Homo sapiens (Human)",
                    "taxid": "9606"
                }
            ],
            "category": "Cancer cell line",
            "comments": [
                {
                    "value": "HeLa is the most frequent contributor to cell lines contamination",
                    "category": "Miscellaneous"
                },
                {
                    "value": "Was flown since the 1960s on at least ten different space missions: Korabl-Sputnik-2, Vostok-1, Vostok-4, Vostok-5 and Vostok-6, Voshkod 1 and Zond-5, Discoverer XVIII, Progress M-35/Mir and Shuttle STS-89",
                    "category": "Anecdotal"
                },
                {
                    "value": "The HeLa cell line and its story inspired Australian artist Cynthia Verspaget to embark in 2003 on a artistic project 'The Anarchy Cell Line' (TAnCL) where she mixed her blood with HeLa cells. This work later spawned a PhD thesis (CelloPub=CLPUB00376",
                    "category": "Anecdotal"
                },
                {
                    "value": "The fascinating story of the HeLa cell line and of Henrietta Lacks from whom these cells originate are described in the book of Reb
…(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema)
```

#### `GET /v1/search` — Search cell lines

**Parameters:**
- `q` (query, required, string) — Search text, e.g. HeLa Example: `HeLa`
- `limit` (query, optional, string) — Max results (1-100)

**Example:**
```bash
curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \
  "https://api.oanor.com/cellosaurus-api/v1/search?q=HeLa"
```

**Response:**
```json
{
    "data": {
        "count": 20,
        "query": "HeLa",
        "cell_lines": [
            {
                "name": "HeLa",
                "disease": [
                    "Human papillomavirus-related endocervical adenocarcinoma"
                ],
                "species": [
                    "Homo sapiens (Human)"
                ],
                "category": "Cancer cell line",
                "accession": "CVCL_0030"
            },
            {
                "name": "HeLa 229",
                "disease": [
                    "Human papillomavirus-related endocervical adenocarcinoma"
                ],
                "species": [
                    "Homo sapiens (Human)"
                ],
                "category": "Cancer cell line",
                "accession": "CVCL_1276"
            },
            {
                "name": "HeLa 292",
                "disease": [
                    "Human papillomavirus-related endocervical adenocarcinoma"
                ],
                "species": [
                    "Homo sapiens (Human)"
                ],
                "category": "Cancer cell line",
                "accession": "CVCL_WH96"
            },
            {
                "name": "HeLa 382",
                "disease": [
                    "Human papillomavirus-related endocervical adenocarcinoma"
                ],
                "species": [
                    "Homo sapiens (Human)"
                ],
                "category": "Cance
…(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema)
```

### Meta

#### `GET /v1/meta` — Usage notes

**Example:**
```bash
curl -H "x-oanor-key: $KEY" \
  "https://api.oanor.com/cellosaurus-api/v1/meta"
```

**Response:**
```json
{
    "data": {
        "note": "Cellosaurus is the reference encyclopaedia of cell lines — 150,000+ entries covering cancer cell lines, hybridomas, induced pluripotent stem cells and more, used throughout biomedical research. /v1/search?q=HeLa = search cell lines by name or keyword, returning each line's Cellosaurus accession (CVCL_…), name, category, species and disease; /v1/cellline?id=CVCL_0030 = a cell line's full record — its name and synonyms, category (e.g. cancer cell line), species with NCBI taxon id, sex, age, associated disease(s) with NCIt/ontology ids, tissue of origin, parent cell line and number of derived child lines, the count of literature references and cross-references (to ATCC, DSMZ, Wikidata, …), web pages, and — importantly — whether the line is flagged PROBLEMATIC (misidentified or contaminated, a major source of irreproducible research) with the explanatory notes. Accessions look like CVCL_0030 (HeLa). Data from Cellosaurus (CC-BY 4.0). For protein sequences see UniProt, for target-disease links Open Targets, for clinical trials the ClinicalTrials API.",
        "source": "Cellosaurus — SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (cellosaurus.org)",
        "endpoints": [
            "/v1/search",
            "/v1/cellline",
            "/v1/meta"
        ]
    },
    "meta": {
        "timestamp": "2026-06-01T16:24:09.395Z",
        "request_id": "2dc86c14-6eac-4b09-b652-a16aea03494f"
    },
    "status": "ok",
    "message": "Meta retrieved
…(truncated, see openapi.json for full schema)
```


---
Marketplace page: https://www.oanor.com/api/cellosaurus-api
OpenAPI spec: https://www.oanor.com/api/cellosaurus-api/openapi.json