One of the most important skills to acquire or refresh is how to work with cell lines under the hood with basic sterile technique. Rothenberg also recommends developing “the necessary skills to manage a cell line, including understand[ing] your cell-culture vessel options [and] understand[ing] techniques such as cell seeding, passaging/harvesting, cryopreservation and recovery.” He also advocates keeping a cell-culture log that includes information to help you and others care for your cell lines. “The log should include the cell-line name and derivation, culture conditions, medium requirements, images of the cell line, genetic confirmation of the cell line and verification of mycoplasma analysis,” Rothenberg says.