Cell ablation

Cell ablation (from Latin Cellula "small chamber" and Ablatio "removal"). Also known as tissue ablation, cell ablation is a biotechnological tool for studying cell lineage. The process consists of selectively destroying or removing cells in an organism.

For example, a laser beam or controllable gene promoter for a toxin gene can be used to destroy a selected amount of cells.

Cell ablation can also be used as a tool to produce transgenic organisms lacking a cell type, and as a cure for certain diseases such as cancer.

The term is not to be confused with genetic ablation: a method of modifying DNA in order to disrupt the production of a specific gene.

There are multiple different techniques of cell ablation (laser ablation, thermal ablation, etc...). Many of which are being utilized in biomedical sciences to study cell functions

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