As a result, a cell line can often be subcloned. Subcloning involves taking individual cells within a cell line and causing them to proliferate, then using all of its descendants as a single cell line. Banking allows experimenters to use early, unaltered versions of the lines, which have not proliferated and evolved for the last 10 years in someone's laboratory. Overall, although cell lines can have genomic problems they can still be used to provide important information about molecular interactions and inductions. In addition, they are a fantastic resource for researchers who do not have the stomach for animal research.
Contamination is bad.
It comes in many forms, and results, in all cases, from growth of organisms other than your cells of choice, in your culture vessel. Contamination usually involves fungi, bacteria, or micoplasma. Fungi make fuzzy mats and put out long fibrous processes. Micoplasma are strange organisms that live within cells, and are only now being implicated in human disease. Our laminar flow hood is designed to keep out these types of critter.