Cell Culture Trouble Shooting

Content & Learning Objective

This course provides you with knowledge and methods to avoid cell culture problems such as slow cell growth, reduced survival after thawing, and contaminations. You will be introduced to documentation and standardization as tools to optimize cell culturing. In the practical part, we will analyze the effects of the most common mistakes in routine cell culture, e.g., incorrect protocols and use of material while trypsinizing, freezing, thawing, and splitting cells as well as mistakes resulting from misuse of cell culture media. Furthermore, you will be trained to recognize contaminations early and to avoid them by adopting certain standard procedures.

The theoretical part includes:

• Basics of sterile working techniques
• Routine methods in cell culture
• Components of media and their use
• Cell counting and viability testing
• Contaminations in cell cultures
• Development of a trouble shooting guide
• Documentation
• Cell banking

The practical part contains:

• Thawing of cells with and without error provocation
• Subcultivation of cells with and without error provocation
• Freezing of cells with and without error provocation

Target Group

Technical and scientific staff members with cell culture experience.

Teacher

Dr. Ute Liegibel graduated with a Masters Diploma in Biological Sciences and a PhD  from the University of Heidelberg. She continued her scientific career as a Research Assistant in the field of genetic toxicology at the DKFZ in Heidelberg and the Institute of Nutritional Science in Jena. From 2000-2005 Dr. Liegibel was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University Hospital in Heidelberg. In April 2005, she joined PromoCell where she started in Technical Customer Support. She is now "Manager of Training and Education" for PromoCell and is responsible for Product Training of staff members and the maintenance of the online PromoCell knowledgebase.

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Quality Management in Cell Culture Labs