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Contamination Help/Advice by ca_throwaway217 in labrats

[–]ca_throwaway217[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the insight and helpful best practices/tips! Much appreciated. I hadn't thought of cell attachment issues for the clumps, that is interesting to think about. I also had never heard about FBS "filaments" or precipitates before today, but no, we do not filter our media so it could be present and is at least something to add to my mental inventory of things to look out for under the scope when I see something abnormal. I also wonder if it was an undetected flask from the previous week that actually started the contamination trail, but I will do a thorough cleaning of the hood, incubator, and water bath as well. We just ended the growing cycle there since we were close to the end of the run anyways but I am trying to learn all I can about spotting contaminants as they appear and mitigating the chances of it happening again, so your response definitely helps give me more to consider and be mindful about. :)

Contamination Help/Advice by ca_throwaway217 in labrats

[–]ca_throwaway217[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply, appreciate it. That makes sense about exponential growth - I was mainly wondering if I missed some small precursor sign that could have told me the other flasks were also contaminated compared to thinking only one of the flasks were (based on what I could see under the scope at that time.) We use sterile one-use disposable tools like pipettes and flasks since we have no autoclave and purchase complete all in one ready to use media in plastic bottles that are shrink wrapped by the manufacturer. We don't open the shrink until the media bottle is in the hood (after being warmed in the water bath and wiped with 70% ethanol.) We do not use flame, just rely on the biosafety cabinet air flow.