Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course is intended to introduce the student to the principles and practical considerations of animal and plant cell and tissue culture. The focus of Tissue Culture I will be on routine maintenance of cultures. Special procedures and applications and investigative work will be emphasized in the subsequent course (Tissue Culture II).

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Successfully maintain cultures of animal cells and established cell lines with good viability, minimal contamination and appropriate documentation.
2. Perform supportive or episodic tasks relevant to cell culture, including preparation and evaluation of media, cryopreservation and recovery, and assessment of cell growth/health.
3. Recognize and troubleshoot problems common to routine cell culture.

*The lecture time is used to introduce key concepts of cell biology as they relate to manipulating cells in culture, to demonstrate the specific skills used by tissue culture technicians, and to provide the student with information on the applications of tissue culture in modern laboratory settings.

* The laboratory work will focus on routine maintenance of both plant and animal cells. For animal cells, students will maintain at least one adherent and one anchorage-independent cell line, and with these cells practice techniques of routine subculture, including viability testing, identification of contaminated cultures, and cryopreservation. Students will simultaneously begin basic plant micropropagation in tissue culture, with attention to differences in culture requirements for different plants.

* Throughout the course, experiments designed to illustrate or investigate the effects of variables in culture conditions will be carried out.

* Students will be expected to maintain an accurate and intelligible record of all their work, and be able to communicate the results of their experiments to instructors and colleagues.

THEMES
Cell growth requirements
Behavior of cells in Culture

CONCEPTS
Maintaining and assessing viability
Contamination control
Cryopreservation
Laboratory organization
Communication of procedures and results

SKILLS
Aseptic Technique
Observation
Routine subculture
Cell counting and viability
Quality control Calculations
Record keeping (notebook, lab records)
Freezing and thawing cells
Casual and formal oral communication
Written communication
Graphic interpretation of results Cooperation with colleagues
Teamwork
Time management