• Question: Where do you find the cells you test and are they hard to find

    Asked by Holly2005! to Robert on 9 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Robert Lees

      Robert Lees answered on 9 Nov 2015:


      Hi Holly,

      The cells I test are from a rat that hasn’t been born yet (rat embryo), they are made especially for this purpose. The cells are therefore always available when we need them. A litter of rat embryos from one rat mum will be enough for an entire lab of research for many weeks (>5 people).

      In other areas of research people might use left over human tissue from operations and mush it up in to single cells. Or use immortal cells (they live forever!), however in both cases neurons will not survive this process, they must come from a very young animal.

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