Faculty: Thomas K. Borg, Ph.D. - Course Director

Institution: University of South Carolina School of Medicine

Location: Columbia, South Carolina

Duration: 4 weeks

Course Offered: January - July

Number of Students: 1 or 2 per rotation

Students Report To: School of Medicine Campus,  Cell & Dev. Biology & Anatomy, Building #1, Room B-17, 9:00 a.m. Contact:  Thomas Borg, Ph.D. Phone: 733-3115 Fax: 733-1558  Email: borg@gw.med.sc.edu   

It has been estimated that by the year 2000 nearly 80% of biomedical literature will deal in some way with aspects of cell culture. If this is true, the modern physician can only benefit from a knowledge of the basics of cell and tissue culture. This course is designed to acquaint the future physician with the basic principles and procedures of cell cultures and how they can be applied to problems in medicine. The student will receive hands-on experience in the various phases of cell culture including: tissue procurement, explant culture, tissue dissociation, cell and viability counts, subculturing techniques and culture evaluation including fluorescent microscopy and histochemistry. Interested students may wish to sign up for an additional 4 weeks to perform a project of their choosing involving tissue culture.