Cell Culturing and Learning ECIS

Today I cultured BSC-1 cells on my own! I worked with the techniques taught to me last week, and split a single flask of confluent cells into two. I first practiced my mechanical pipetting skills, and then dove right into culturing my cells. Every 20 minutes I checked back on my cells to examine the rate at which they were growing. I found that as time went on, the cells began to assemble themselves into tiny clusters. When I arrive at my internship next week, I will take a look at my cells to see how they have multiplied and if they have grown into a confluent layer. (Fingers crossed I managed to avoid any type of contamination!)

Today, I was also introduced to the ECIS technology. Dr. Keese taught me how to run an RC test, which is essentially a computer chip that is engineered to mimic cell behaviors on an electrode. (How someone programs a computer chip to model cell behavior is something way over my head right now, but maybe with a few more internship visits I will begin to grasp this concept!) I then plugged this chip into the ECIS instrument, and was able to get a test graph. The graph was just eight horizontal lines of varying color and value. Next week, I will be putting the ECIS software onto my own laptop, and I will learn how to place my cultured cells in an eight-welled electrode. The graphs of living cells will obviously have a very different graph than the RC test chip. An ECIS cell graph will have multiple lines that originate in the same place, then steadily increase as they divide and multiply faster rate.

Our 8-welled RC test graph.

What our ECIS graph of cell behavior will look like.