What is the typical temperature of a lab incubator?

• A. 37 C
• B. 4 C
• C. -20 C
• D. 60 C

Answer: (A)

Maintaining a temperature around body temperature is essential for cell culture because mammalian cells rely on physiological warmth for metabolism, enzyme activity, and growth. The standard incubator setting is 37°C, which closely matches human body temperature and supports normal cellular processes needed for proliferation and assay performance. Some incubators also provide CO2 and humidity controls to keep the culture medium at the correct pH and prevent evaporation, but the key factor in this question is the temperature. The other temperatures have different roles: 4°C slows metabolic activity to preserve samples during handling, -20°C is used for freezing and long-term storage, and 60°C is far too hot for biological materials and would damage or destroy cells and proteins.