Quality Management in Cell Culture Labs  -  theoretical training

Content & Learning Objective

Defining standards in cell culture is usually perceived as being complicated and therefore, establishing guidelines is often postponed or omitted. However, standards are an indispensable prerequisite for gaining reliable, objective, and reproducible results and consistently avoiding contamination. In this course, you will be trained to perform cell culture routine methods according to current quality guidelines. Even though GMP and GLP are not a central topic in this course, standardization will be presented e.g., by generating SOPs and by recommendations in line with GLP and GMP regulations.

Topics in this theoretical course are:

• Quality: defining a term
• Risk analysis as a basis for decisions
• Standardization of cell culture routine methods such as passaging, thawing, and freezing of cells
• Contamination control with a focus on mycoplasma
• Quality of reagents in cell culture, e.g., FCS
• Prevention of cross contamination
• Methods for characterizing cells
• Cell identification
• Cell purity in primary cultures
• Specific cell culture SOPs
• Assurance of lasting quality of cell lines
• Cell banking
• Documentation
• SOP workshop

Frequently combined further topics for in-house courses

This content is adapted, supplemented and shortened for in-house courses according to requirements and customer wishes. Depending on the content, group sizes and available sterile workbenches, the course can be designed between 1 and 4 days long. All content is customized. Additional topics could include:

• Mycoplasma and mycoplasma test kits
• Cross contamination
• Hygiene relevant equipment (e.g. sterile bench, incubator) and their selection, cleaning and testing
• SOP workshop: aseptic working technique
• Cell counting and counters
• Standardization
• Continous process control
• Bioassays

Target Group

Technical and scientific staff members with cell culture experience who want to improve the quality of their cell cultures and the reliability of their results but do not work under GMP or GLP.

Dates and prizes

Please contact us for an offer tailored to your needs. All dates are set to suit your schedule. Usually a course can be performed as fast as 4-8 weeks after the initial contact. Depending on the level of your group, topics can also be added or removed to better fit the training necessities.

Trainer

Dr. Nicole Kühl studied Biology at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and the University of Bremen. 1999 she completed her Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology studying the cell cycle and heat shock proteins. Dr. Kühl then began her post-doctorate work at the Academic Hospital Groningen in the Netherlands, where she specialized in research related to multiple sclerosis and worked with primary glial cells. In 2005, she continued her work at the Jacobs University Bremen, where she led a research group and lectured in biochemistry and cell biology. From 2008 to 2011, Dr. Kühl was the head of the PromoCell Academy and taught cell culture courses. Since 2012, she is a freelance trainer and consultant in the area of cell culture quality control as well as GMP/ATMPs and runs the cell culture web site InCelligence.de. Watch Dr. Kühl in a video from our MOOC.