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Asked by anon-266977 to Veronica on 5 Nov 2020.
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Veronica Caraffini answered on 5 Nov 2020:
Working with cells need some special equipment. First, you need a place where you can keep the cells, which is called incubator. This incubator opens and you can put the cells inside onto a sort of shelf. The incubator is warm inside, at 37 degree Celsius, cause the cells like to stay at this temperature. The cells are also inside what is called a plate, or a dish, which is a plastic box for the cells. This box can be opened and you can put the cells inside, together with some liquid, which contains all the nutrients for the cells. You need to take care of the cells frequently, normally 2-3 times a week at least and for example change this liquid: it’s like you have to feed them, otherwise they are not happy! It’s like if we wouldn’t get anything to eat, that wouldn’t make us happy either! All the work with the cells, like opening the box they are in and feeding them, is done in a specific area of the lab, in this way the cells don’t get contaminated: this means that nothing else enters the plate where the cells are and they can live happily! What is really interesting about cells is that you can freeze them at really low temperatures (-80 degree Celsius or even lower!) using special liquids and, after thawing, the cells survive and can divide again! So if you are going on holiday, you can freeze your cells and thaw them when you come back!
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Comments
Zahra commented on :
Working with cells is a bit like keeping very tiny pets! You grow them in a plastic dish (with a lid, so they don’t get infected with anything), and you have to make sure to feed them with liquid nutrients. You have to “split” them – moving them into bigger dishes, so they have room to grow – every week or so. Just like a pet, you can’t leave them alone without food for too long! If you’re going on holiday, or doing other experiments that don’t need cells, you can freeze them at very very cold temperatures (around -200°C!) until you need them again.
Romain commented on :
Hi, there’s plenty of ways to work with cells, but it all depends on what kind of work you would like to do with them. One type of research job I know (and I have a lot of people around me who that, including myself) is being a cell biologist! Cell biologist grow cells, insert new pieces of DNA in them, add some colours to see them under microscopes, remove small bits, for instance, all in an effort to see what happens and see if that can help understand why, in some cases, they may mis-function and become a disease (like cancer for instance, but also in understanding why we become old). Such jobs is common in academic research but not only, private companies like the ones working to discover new drugs have talented cell biologists working for them!