Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Immortalized Cell Lines

At first glance immortalized cell lines and maintaining them seem to be a sort of necessary evil of lab.  More of a tool to get work done than anything.  A protocol which until recently I haven't honestly put too much thought into.  I've known what goes into them and the purpose of different substances, but my thought on them plateaued in a sense.  However I've found that the more time I spent splitting the cell lines I've been maintaining, the more I think about what goes on beyond the normal routine of the protocol of splitting them.

At times I've wondered how these cell lines were produced. Why are they not cancerous? Could they be cancerous because they are indefinitely proliferating?

Is immortalization possible with other cell lines? Can stem cells be give rise to other stems? Can you clone pluripotent stem cells?

Is it possible that cells in vitro could evolve differently than in vivo cells?

Last but not least, my most "out there" idea. Would it be possible to reassemble life in space? Is the fusion of sex cells on an unmanned spacecraft possible to extend the length of interstellar voyages. How do cells react in zero gravity.

So many questions...

2 comments:

  1. they need somewhere to live after they're done flying through space and when they grow up

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  2. do they? why not the spaceship itself?

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