• Question: How many cells do you feed and what do feed them @,Hussain

    Asked by joe1234 to Hussain on 14 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Hussain Jaffery

      Hussain Jaffery answered on 14 Nov 2015:

      I usually work with tens of millions and hundreds of thousands of cells in any given experiment! It sounds like a lot, but because the cells are so small, you need such numbers to get enough DNA, or proteins from them to do analysis on.

      Also, because there are so many cells in bone marrow, bones etc., it’s relatively easy to get tens of millions cells any given tissue sample, whether human or animal.

      Different types of cells need specific things in their food. In general, we immerse the cells in a red-coloured soup that contains dissolved sugars, proteins, vitamins and minerals. All of these things help to keep the cells alive. We put the cells in a warm, dark, and damp environment which mimics the body. And then its just a matter of time for them to grow and change 🙂

      If you ever want to see how they’re doing, you can quickly put them under the microscope and have a look. Then put them back until you need them.

      Over time, if the cells are happy in their environment, they start to multiply in number!

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