# Cellosaurus Cell Lines Scraper (`ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper`) Actor

$0.5/1K 🔥 Cellosaurus Cells! Look up cell lines with origin, disease & cross-references. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Verify cell-line identity for lab research ⚡

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ninhothedev](https://apify.com/ninhothedev) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Cellosaurus Cell Lines Scraper

Structured **cell-line metadata** from [Cellosaurus](https://www.cellosaurus.org/) — the reference knowledge base of cell lines used in biomedical research. Get species, disease, sex, age, origin, STR profiles and 30+ database cross-references for any cell line, as clean JSON. **No API key required.**

> Pricing: pay-as-you-go, roughly **~$0.5 per 1,000 cell lines**. Cellosaurus data is licensed **CC-BY-4.0**.

### Why this actor

Cell-line misidentification and cross-contamination is one of the biggest reproducibility problems in the life sciences. Every record this actor emits carries an **`is_problematic`** flag — set whenever Cellosaurus marks a line as *"Problematic cell line"* or *Contaminated*. That single field turns a bulk export into a **research-integrity screen** you can run over your whole lab inventory.

### Use cases

- **Cell line authentication** — verify a line's identity, STR profile presence and known aliases before you trust an experiment.
- **Cancer research** — filter by `is_cancer`, disease (NCIt) and category to build cohorts of cancer cell lines with their DepMap ids.
- **Reproducibility checks** — screen your inventory against `is_problematic` to catch contaminated or misidentified lines.
- **Lab inventory enrichment** — map internal names to canonical CVCL accessions, species, and provider cross-references.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `mode` | select | `search` (full-text queries) or `accessions` (explicit CVCL ids). Default `search`. |
| `queries` | array | Free-text queries. Prefilled `["HeLa","Jurkat","HEK293"]`. Used in `search` mode. |
| `accessions` | array | Explicit CVCL ids, e.g. `["CVCL_0030"]`. Used in `accessions` mode. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max records to store. Default `200`, max `3000`. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "queries": ["HeLa", "Jurkat", "HEK293"],
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item:

```json
{
  "type": "cell_line",
  "accession": "CVCL_0030",
  "secondary_accessions": [],
  "name": "HeLa",
  "synonyms": ["HELA", "He-La", "Henrietta Lacks cells"],
  "category": "Cancer cell line",
  "sex": "Female",
  "age": "30Y6M",
  "species": "Homo sapiens (Human)",
  "species_accession": "9606",
  "disease": "Human papillomavirus-related endocervical adenocarcinoma",
  "disease_ncit": "C27677",
  "derived_from": null,
  "is_problematic": false,
  "is_cancer": true,
  "str_profile_present": true,
  "cross_references": [{"db": "DepMap", "accession": "ACH-001086"}],
  "depmap_id": "ACH-001086",
  "comment_count": 34,
  "web_pages": [],
  "url": "https://www.cellosaurus.org/CVCL_0030",
  "source": "cellosaurus",
  "scraped_at": "2026-08-11T00:00:00Z"
}
```

All fields are nullable. `cross_references` is capped at 30 and `web_pages` at 5.

### Related actors

- [cBioPortal Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/cbioportal-scraper)
- [Clinical Trials Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/clinical-trials-scraper)
- [UniProt Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/uniprot-scraper)
- [Reactome Pathways Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/reactome-pathways-scraper)

### Data source & license

Data from [Cellosaurus](https://www.cellosaurus.org/) (SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics), licensed **CC-BY-4.0**. This actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with SIB.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

How to select cell lines. 'search' runs full-text queries against the Cellosaurus API; 'accessions' resolves an explicit list of CVCL accession ids.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Free-text queries (cell-line names, tissues, diseases). Used only when mode is 'search'. Each query is paginated until maxItems is reached.

## `accessions` (type: `array`):

Explicit Cellosaurus accession ids such as CVCL\_0030. Used only when mode is 'accessions'.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of cell-line records to store in the dataset.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "queries": [
    "HeLa",
    "Jurkat",
    "HEK293"
  ],
  "accessions": [
    "CVCL_0030",
    "CVCL_0004"
  ],
  "maxItems": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "HeLa",
        "Jurkat",
        "HEK293"
    ],
    "accessions": [
        "CVCL_0030"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": [
        "HeLa",
        "Jurkat",
        "HEK293",
    ],
    "accessions": ["CVCL_0030"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "HeLa",
    "Jurkat",
    "HEK293"
  ],
  "accessions": [
    "CVCL_0030"
  ]
}' |
apify call ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ninhothedev/cellosaurus-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yaxWM93L0xqDQgWLC/builds/Xj0xg7plw9ha5LhAb/openapi.json