Extracting T Cells from Whole Blood (Patreon)
Published:
2018-04-24 16:32:08
Imported:
2026-06
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You were probably taught that there are 3 things in your blood: Red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells. The reality, as is often the case, is more complicated than that. White blood cells actually refer to a whole family of cells that all make up the different parts of your immune system.
One of the main soldiers in your immune systems army are T cells which recognize foreign bodies and destroy them. In some of the newest cancer therapies scientists are using genetic engineering to teach a patients own T cells how to find cancer cells so that they can be destroyed. This way only cancer cells are damaged and the rest of the body remains healthy, unlike in traditional chemotherapy and radiation.
Over the past several months I've been in Florida visiting my friend Gabriel Licina and his mammalian cell culture lab. While there I got to film the process of extracting T cells from whole blood which uses some incredible biochemistry to make possible.
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