Welcome to your cell culture class.

In this class, we will be growing animal cells in culture.

Cell culture is prominent in industry and academic labs. Cell culture allows for diagnosing various diseases, studying cancer, and researching stem cells. Basically, everything involving humans and disease has some application in cell culture. Even nature and animal conservationists are turning toward cell culture as a means of preserving the natural world.

You should plan on taking at least three weeks to complete the labs in this class. Some tasks require overnight to complete; some tasks need three to four days of growing time. Each task relies on the successful completion of the task preceding it.

In this module, you’ll learn how to

- thaw and transfer cryopreserved mammalian cells to media,
- observe growing cells using a phase contrast microscope,
- feed cells,
- count cells using a hemocytometer,
- subculture cells,
- transfect cells for fluorescence,
- observe transfected cells using a fluorescence microscope,
- screen cells for contamination, and
- cryopreserve cells.