Course

Unit 1

General lay out of a cell culture lab, physical environment needed for the cell culture, growth media and its composition, BSC and its use in cell culture and how to work in a BSC, contamination during cell culture and how to control it, culturing and splitting of cell lines, cryopreservation of cells and cell viability assays.

Unit 2

Hands-on cell culture work, media changes, seeding, splitting adherent cells, cell counting, reseeding, and safe disposal

Unit 3

Animal handling techniques, animal feed, gavage, different routes of injection, ethical treatment of animals and Institutional Animal Ethics Committee policies

Pre-requisites: Basic understanding of experimental research

Total number of lab sessions: 15

COURSE OUTCOME:

After successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• To demonstrate a general level of understanding towards the function, maintenance and working of Bio-safety Cabinets (BSC) and be able to work in BSCs with a good sterilization technique
• To identify culture contamination and methods involved to maintain sterility
• Able to prepare media and maintain adherent cells in culture for atleast a week
• To recognize the importance of animal and ethical standards of animal use in research and able to handle small animals

• Ian Freshney. Culture of Animal Cells: A Manual of Basic Technique and Specialized Applications, 6th ed. 2010. Wiley-Blackwell.
• CPCSEA Guidelines for Laboratory Animal Facility, 2004.
• Guide for the Care and use of Laboratory Animals 8th Edition, 2011, The National Academic Press.