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In a cell culture lab, the basic instruments and equipment used will depend on the types of cells being cultured. For our purposes, the following lists will be tailored for mammalian cell culture, but some of this equipment may still be relevant for other culture types. 

A cell culture laboratory's major requirement is to maintain an aseptic work area restricted to cell culture work. Although a separate tissue culture room is preferred, a well designated cell culture area within a larger laboratory can still be used for sterile handling, incubation, and storage of cell cultures, reagents, and media. The simplest and most economical way to provide aseptic conditions is to use a laminar flow hood (i.e., cell culture hood or biosafety cabinet).

A cell culture hood is designed to safeguard the aseptic working area by containing infectious splashes and maintaining a constant flow of filtered air to protect you and your cultures against dust and airborne contaminants. 

Learn more about how laminar flow hoods maintain an aseptic work area 

Incubators provide the appropriate environment for cell growth. The incubator should be large enough for your laboratory needs, have forced-air circulation, and should have temperature control to within ±0.2°C. Stainless steel incubators allow easy cleaning and provide corrosion protection, especially if humid air is required for incubation. Although the requirement for aseptic conditions in a cell culture incubator is not as stringent as that in a cell culture hood, frequent cleaning of the incubator is essential to avoid contamination of cell cultures.

There are two basic types of incubators: dry incubators and humid CO₂ incubators. Dry incubators require the cell cultures to be incubated in sealed flasks to prevent evaporation. Placing a water dish in a dry incubator can provide some humidity, but they do not allow precise control of atmospheric conditions in the incubator. Humid CO₂ incubators allow excellent control of culture conditions. They are outstanding for the incubation of cells within a controlled atmosphere of high humidity and increased CO₂ tension.

A cell culture laboratory should be equipped with storage areas. These should include spaces for liquids like media, reagents, chemicals, and consumables like disposable pipettes, culture vessels and laboratory PPE, such as gloves. It should also have storage for specialized equipment, as well as tissues and cells. Cultureware, PPE, and specialized equipment can be stored at ambient temperature on shelves and in drawers; however, it is important to store all media, reagents, and chemicals according to the instructions on the label.

Certain media, reagents, and chemicals are sensitive to light. Light exposure degrades the essential vitamins in media that cells need to grow. While using these in a normal laboratory setting under lighted conditions is tolerated, media and reagents should be stored in the dark or wrapped in aluminum foil when not in use.

In a cell culture lab, the protection and preservation of your cell culture samples, media, and reagents are critical to optimal cell growth. To store your supplies, you’ll need a reliable cold storage method that preserves material and sample integrity. Conventional domestic or commercial refrigerators are different from those designed for cell culture processes because they don’t maintain temperature stability or uniformity. Significant fluctuations in the temperature of non-lab specific cold storage can lead to unfortunate consequences such as damage to cells and compromising the integrity of cell culture reagents.

Refrigerators and freezers designed for a laboratory setting have time and temperature sensitive auto defrost cycling, which is important to keep temperature fluctuations within a tight range. Laboratory refrigerators are ideal for storing cell culture media and reagents with a temperature range of 2–8°C. Lab freezers typically reach –20 or –30°C for storing high-value supplements like FBS. Ultra-low temperature freezers reach –40 or –80°C. Models that reach –80°C are suitable for short-term sample storage or preparing cells for long-term cryopreservation. It’s also good practice to preserve cells in single-access aliquots to avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles that could produce ice crystals and damage your cells. When working with any cell cultures, maintaining consistent and predictable temperatures—from incubator to cold storage—is critical to supporting their growth.

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Cell lines in continuous culture are likely to suffer from genetic instability as their passage number increases; therefore, it is essential to prepare working stocks of the cells and preserve them in cryogenic storage. For more information and specific protocols visit Cryopreservation of Mammalian Cells. 

Cryopreservation is recommended for long-term or indefinite storage of cells at a minimum temperature of –130°C. All cell cultures should be prepared for freezing or cryopreservation with a freezing media containing DMSO or glycerol to protect the cells from the freezing and thawing process.

Standard cryopreservation protocol calls for slow freezing at no more than –1°C per minute. This can be achieved by using a programmable freezer or by placing vials in an insulated box such as the Mr. Frosty Freezing Container. It is designed to limit the cooling rate to close to –1°C per minute in a –70°C to –90°C freezer, after which you can transfer to liquid nitrogen storage. 

There are two main types of liquid-nitrogen storage systems, vapor phase and liquid phase. Vapor phase systems minimize the risk of explosion with cryostorage tubes, and are required for storing biohazardous materials, while the liquid phase systems usually have longer static holding times and are therefore more economical.

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The cell counter’s primary function is to count live and dead cells, measure viability, and report average cell size. A cell counter is essential for quantitative growth kinetics, and a great advantage when more than two or three cell lines are cultured in the laboratory. Most experiments necessitate accurate, precise measurement of the number of cells and their viability prior to downstream analysis. This assessment can be done manually with a traditional hemocytometer and microscope, however an automated cell counter, such as the Countess 3 Automated Cell Counter can expedite the process and deliver results with greater accuracy. 

A water bath helps bring media and reagents to an appropriate temperature for cell culture experiments, particularly when thawing frozen reagents, or cryopreserved cells and samples. However, a water bath can become a source of contamination within the cell culture lab if not properly maintained. A modern alternative to water for a water bath are Lab Armor Beads. They are small, non-uniform metal beads comprised of dry, metallic thermal alloy designed to replace water in a non-circulating and non-shaking laboratory water baths or ice in an ice bucket. This “dry bath” eliminates standing water, helping reduce the risk of contamination in what is a vital step for many cell culture labs. 

A centrifuge is vital for several areas of the cell culture workflow, including subculturing, freezing, and thawing cells for use. In these stages, the substance containing the cells is pipetted from the culture vessel into culture tubes and centrifuged to separate the cells from a medium or dissociation reagent. The result is a cell pellet that can then be prepared for the next stage in your workflow. 

Benchtop centrifuges are usually the preferred choice for cell culture because of their size and accessibility. The speed and force of the centrifuge during these processes will vary based on the chosen cell type. Some cell lines are too delicate for centrifugation— refer to your experiment's protocols for instruction on whether a centrifuge is right for separating your cells.

Imaging systems are used in the analysis stage of the cell culture workflow to study cultured cells. A researcher may want to analyze the cell’s morphology, growth rates and patterns, cell behavior, or check for contamination. Microscopes are also essential during preparations for the next passage. Observing cells with a microscope during the dissociation steps helps to prevent damage by the dissociation solution and determine cell detachment. Advanced systems like the EVOS cell imaging systems use bright LED lights to capture high-resolution images with more than 30 high-performance objective lenses.

Most materials used in a cell culture lab are consumables. They help reduce the risk of contamination and provide an aseptic environment for your cultures. Common consumables include cell culture vessels and plastics such as plates and flasks, pipettes, pipette tips, culture tubes, and chamber slides. Additionally, lab consumables also include cell culture supplies for safety such as gloves, gowns, shoe covers, and face shields. Detailed information on PPE and laboratory safety can be found on Aseptic Techniques and Safety in Cell Culture.

For an extended list of additional cell culture supplies you may need in your cell culture experiments, see the list below.