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Beginning Pretrials
On 11/2/23, I drove to CU Anschutz Medical Campus where I met my outside mentor, Andrew Neumann, and was generously donated two vials of NIH3T3 cells. I spent the next few weeks practicing the basics of cell culture, such as operating an autoclave and using the incubator. My student mentor, Gaven Giaque, performed a cell culture project for the Biotechnology class last year and has been teaching me cell culture protocols.
I decided to wait to plate my cells until after Thanksgiving break so they would have the most time to grow. On 11/29/23, I plated the cells and officially began pretrials. The cells are currently growing in the incubator. In the upcoming weeks, I will be continuously checking on the cells under the microscope. Once cells have reached 75% confluency, I will split them into separate plates. This way, cells will not begin to grow on top of each other, leading to cell death, and if one plate becomes contaminated, I still have other plates to use.
Adding Cells to Growth Media
Adding Cells to Growth Media
Here, I am transferring the cells from the vial they were transported in to a centrifuge tube. I centrifuged them to remove the freezing media and replaced it with growth media.
Plating Cells
Plating Cells
After adding growth media to the cells, I transferred them to a 100mm petri plate where they will spend their time growing.
NIH3T3 Cells Day 1
NIH3T3 Cells Day 1
I viewed the petri plate under a microscope to ensure that cells made it onto the plate. Here, the fibroblast cells are round and in good condition. As they continue to grow, they will develop branches.
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