Question: how do you grow the cells?

Dawn Lau answered on 13 Jun 2016:

Most of our cells come from a center in America where they store thousands of different types of cells. The center collects cells from many different places: they can come from humans or animals. The cells that we use are human cells and they were originally tumour tissue, which is important because we need cells that divide and split and keep growing (otherwise we will run out of material very soon). The center in America keeps them frozen in a state that is a bit like hibernation. When we order cells from them, we thaw them until they are 37C, the temperature of the human body, and put the cells in a flask filled with media. The media is basically a liquid full of nutrients for the cells, and the flask also has air vents to allow them to breathe. Once they have been thawed in the media for a few days, the cells become fully “alive” again and we have to keep feeding them with fresh media every few days because they use up all the nutrients!

We also have to “split” the cells every few days. Because our cells are from tumour tissue, they are “immortal” so they won’t stop dividing and growing, which means they will eventually run out of space in the flask. When we split them, we take a little bit of the cells in the original flask and transfer them to a new flask, so they have more room to grow. That way, we can keep the cells for a long time!