Cell Culture FAQ: How to handle various cell lines?

Cell culture work often implies the cultivation of various cell lines for different ongoing experiments. The simultaneous nourishment of different cell lines in a biosafety cabinet might save some time during a busy day in the laboratory but dramatically increases the risk of cross-contamination and can thus seriously impair the entire experiment. Therefore, some aspects should be considered when working with different cell lines:

• Work with only one cell line at a time in the biosafety cabinet.
  
• Use labeled aliquots of media and reagents for each individual cell line.
  
• Disinfect the interior of the biosafety cabinet after a work session with one cell line.
  
• Run the laminar flow for a few minutes between work sessions with different cell lines.