Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

.

Hi and welcome to Scibuddies. Please keep ALL your posts in a single thread so the experts can see what questions have been asked and answered.

Also, it is helpful for us to know what your hypothesis is and what experiments you are planning to do as our answers may be different depending on your procedures.

I am assuming when you say breast cancer cells that you are referring to human cells, correct? And yes, human cells are considered a biohazard and must be used and disposed of according to specific rules. Growing and using mammalian cells requires a lot of specialized equipment and you have to be taught how to handle them without getting contamination. Your teacher should be familiar with how to do this.

I did not understand what you meant by your first question about freezing your cells. They are stored frozen and thawed out for use and then kept growing in an incubator at 37 degrees Celsius while you are doing experiments. If you want to set some aside for using later you can freeze them but it requires a special freezing reagent and ultra-low freezer to do this.

What exactly do you mean by 'safety plan'? You need to work with the cells in a Class 2 biosafety cabinet and all disposable plastic items and culture media need to be disposed of as biohazard waste. You must wear disposable gloves, safety glasses and a lab coat while working in the lab. That's really all you need to say about safety, so just make a page in your notebook and list the safety precautions you will take. People can understand them easily if you explain clearly why each of the safety procedures is done. Your teacher can advise you if there is anything else that is specifically required by your school.

Please tell us what your project is about so we can help you better. The more details you give us, the easier it is to answer your questions. If you are unfamiliar with the methods of cell culture, there are many tutorials on youtube that you can watch that will show you how this is done.

Good luck!

Sybee