Protocols for Neural Cell Culture

Book excerpt: The first edition of Protocols for Neural Cell Culture was published in 1992 and the second edition in 1997. Originally, the publication grew outofprotocols used in the Tissue Culture Course given at the University of Saskatchewan. The course was patterned on those given by the Tissue CultureAssociation, first in Toronto, Canada, in 1948, then in Cooperstown, NY, then Denver, CO, and finally in Madison, WI, where the course ended in 1964. The course in Saskatchewan began in 1963 as a month-long international course that included both animal and plant tissue cultures. Over the years the course underwent specialization, first being limited to animal tissue culture, then to an intensive one-week general course. This led to one-week courses especially designed for tissue culture for the study of cancer or of the cardiovascular or the nervous system. In 1989, the Saskatchewan course became part of the Tissue Culture Training Facility of the Neuroscience Network of the Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence. The course and the Training Facility ceased to exist in 1997. The faculty for the Saskatchewan course was drawn from the best labora tories in the world and laboratory protocols from those centers were thoroughly tested in a student laboratory setting for many years.