Teaching cell biology with live-cell imaging: contamination in a HeLa cell culture | CytoSMART Lux2

Teachers at Avans University of Applied Sciences used the CytoSMART Lux2 system to show students how contamination can affect a healthy cell culture. HeLa cells were seeded in a T25 flask and provided with RPMI1640 medium supplemented with Glutamax and 5% FCS without antibiotics. This medium, however, was contaminated on purpose before it was added to the cells.

In this video, you can see that after 3 days of incubation, the bacteria have grown significantly and can be easily identified as increased turbidity. Eventually, this caused most cells to die on day 4. Concludingly, students can see how contamination can affect the growth of your cell culture and how extremely important it is to perform experiments in a septic way.

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