Week 3: Starting Cell Work

Welcome to my blog! This week, I wanted to start cell work to prepare for assaying (which would help test the effects of dexamethasone and other corticosteroids on real cells). I planned to start a new cell line of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, which are useful for piloting experiments. However, I couldn’t get my cell line until the next week, so I prepped the media needed for the cells to grow. The media consisted of ~10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), which helps promote cell growth, ~90% Ham F-12K media (energy/food source), and ~1% penstrep, which helps prevents bacterial contamination.