Tissue Culture
Sally Lees and Emma Harkness Tissue culture is the growth in an artificial medium of cells derived from living tissue. This is typically facilitated via the use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, such as broth or agar allowing cells to be grown on petri dishes. Tissue culture is an important tool for the study of the biology of cells enabling stem cells to be cultured, manipulated and assessed in an in-vitro state. Our facility includes fully managed designated primary, derivation and cell culture rooms. Services Cell banks: Cell banks of WT Mefs, DS red Mefs and DR4 Mefs are produced for use as feeder cells. Banks of other popular cell lines such as HEK293, 293FT, Cos-7 and E14 cells are also available. Stem cell colonies on a six well plate
Growth factors/proteins: Quality assured proteins that are produced within the University are available at a fraction of the cost of commercial products. These include growth factors such as mLIF, huLIF, FGF2, actavin, and BMP4. Serum: Variation in the quality of serum and its suitability for particular applications in cell culture can have a dramatic effect on experiments. To ensure this variability is kept to a minimum all serum is batch tested and large stocks held to provide consistency in the cell culture, so making the results obtained more consistent. Mycoplasma Screening: Mycoplasma infections may induce cellular changes, including chromosome aberrations, changes in metabolism and cell growth, having a huge detrimental effect on research. All laboratories and cell lines are routinely screened to ensure the Institute remains mycoplasma free.
MEFs
Quality assurance: Variation in batches of reagents, specifically those used in serum free media can have major impact on the down stream processing of differentiation assays and cell culture, assays that can take several months to perform. To reduce this impact reagents are subjected to a barrage of assays to determine their suitability for the culture of cells and application in specific assays. Training As cell culture is a fundamental skill used by all scientists working with stem cells, training is available to all staff to ensure they have a solid foundation in cell and ES culture.
Chromosome spread
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Staff Sally Lees Emma Harkness Kathryn Cook Diana Breitmaier