Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Freezing blood cells

Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells in an experiment can present a bit of a challenge. Ideally, one should use fresh blood cells; however, it's not always possible to extract this blood as needed, and it certainly won't stay fresh forever. Not to mention that using samples that were taken from different blood draws creates obvious problems, even when they are taken from the same donor.

Cryopreservation is the key. The challenge is to freeze the cells in a way that yields high recovery rates, i.e., where you don't lose too many cells. In addition, one needs to guarantee that the cells remain productive.

Specialized PBMC cryopreservation techniques are available to suit these purposes. They require the use of serum-free cell culture media, among other things, to achieve the required post-thaw productivity and viability.

"Enchanted" is enchanting

Gotta rave about Disney's Enchanted. This is one of the few live-action Disney movies in recent years that I really enjoyed. It would have made a pretty darned good date movie, too. The only other Disney live-action flick in the past 20 years that I enjoyed as much was George of the Jungle.

Amy Adams was wonderful, of course. Totally enchanting and a real discovery. Here's hoping that she does a lot more with the creative Disney wizards.

Oh, and I did not recognize Paige O'Hara at all. She looks completely different. What the heck...?

Anyway, I loved the music, I loved the storyline, I loved the characters, and of course, I loved the Disney homages. These folks were darned amazing.