Tissue Culture Service
Welcome to the Tissue Culture Service. The laboratory is a core facility of the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology and is located in Room E606 on Level 6, East Wing of the Medical Building.
Anne Marie Hutchins, supervisor of the Cell & Tissue Culture Laboratory.
Phone: 8344 4418
Email: a.hutchins@unimelb.edu.au
Anne-Marie is available in the Tissue Culture Lab from Monday to Thursday.
The Cell & Tissue Culture Laboratory is supervised by Anne-Marie Hutchins. Our staff are highly experienced and qualified to teach new staff and students aseptic technique and various cell and tissue culture procedures.
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History
The current facility was established in May, 1995 with the generous assistance of The William Buckland Foundation and The Ian Potter Foundation.
Reno-Medullary Interstitial Cell moving through an insert - Scanning Electron Microscopy. Image by Dr Christine Maric.
Background
Tissue Culture includes organ and cell culture. Organ culture is the culture of undisaggregated tissue. Cell culture refers to cultures derived from dispersed cells.
In animal tissue culture the material may be derived from various sources including insects, amphibians and mammals. The Anatomy and Cell Biology Tissue Culture Laboratory is equipped to grow mammalian cells.
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3T3 Cells in culture - inverted phase contrast microscopy.
The Laboratory
Our aim is to maintain the Tissue Culture Facility to the highest standards and to teach and assist students and researchers both from within our department and from external locations.
The services which we provide to other departments of the University of Melbourne and other institutions include training, providing growing flasks of specific cell types, routine cell culture maintenance and the use of our facility including the incubators and all associated equipment.
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The main laboratory is equipped with two laminar flow cabinets and a Class II biohazard cabinet. The air quality is equal in sterility to a standard operating theatre.
The adjacent room has a double sized laminar flow cabinet allowing two people to work side by side. This is crucial when attempting to isolate tissue from an animal as quickly as possible.
The facility houses up-to-date equipment including a Zeiss inverted phase contrast microscope, three infra-red CO2 sensor incubators, a water purifying system, centrifuges and autoclaves.
External Prices
General Use of Laboratory & Equipment |
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Inc Laminar Flow Hoods, Biohazard Hood, Centrifuges, etc. |
$50.00 |
per hour or part thereof (min. charge 1 hour) |
Use of Incubators |
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per unit (flask/plate) |
$2.50 |
per week |
Provision of Growing Cultures |
25cm flask |
75cm flask |
Cells from growing cultures |
$50.00 |
$65.00 |
Cells from frozen stock |
$100.00 |
$120.00 |
Provision of Frozen Cells |
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Cell types dependant on availability |
negotiable |
per vial |
Use of Liquid Nitrogen Storage Dewar |
$12.00 |
per cane (holds 6 vials), per week |
Tuition |
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Basic Tuition (by arrangement) |
$520.00 |
(2 hours of delivery + 4 hours practical work under supervision in total, including consumables) |
Extra Tuition |
$84.00 |
per hour |
Other Services |
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Cell Culture Services |
$75.00 |
per hour (routine cell culture, etc including consumables) |
Please note:
All equipment MUST be pre-booked.
All consumables and reagents must be provided by external users.
All users must be trained by the Technical Officer in charge prior to using equipment.
Although every effort is made to keep the Cell & Tissue Culture Laboratory contaminant free, cultures provided and/or incubated cannot be guaranteed to be contaminant free.
Tuition and Services based on University Classification Code 052-00.
These charges are reviewed at the end of each financial year.