Question: Do you have a lot of fun looking after your cells? and also how hard is it to put them to bed?

Laura Newton answered on 16 Jun 2015:

Hey Lipgo!

When I first started working with cells I was really amazed that we can grow them in an artificial environment, that I could see them under a microscope and know that they have all the tiny machinery inside them that they need to carry out all their reactions, to survive, to replicate their DNA and make their own proteins. The novelty has worn off a little bit now that I see them every day but if I stop and think about it, I still think all the things we can do as scientists are really amazing.

They usually live in an incubator which keeps them warm at 37C (like they would be in our bodies) but when I don’t need them for a few weeks it’s better to put them to sleep completely so that they stop growing. To do that I collect them into a little vial and then freeze them in liquid nitrogen (which is really, really cold: about -195C) which pauses all their metabolic activity. We can store them like that for years and years and then if we thaw them again and give them the right nutrients they come back to life. It’s not really hard and it’s one of the first things you learn how to do if you are working with cells.

Thanks for your question!
Laura