I need some clarification on the concept of gram dry cell weight.

The unit acronym gDCW stands for gram dry cell weight. My interpretation is that 1 gDCW is equivalent to 1 gram of dry cells, but I am not sure. Is this accurate?

For example, the dry cell weight of mouse cells is roughly 300 pico grams. Therefore, in this case, one gram of dry mouse cells contains $10^{12}/300$ mouse cells (1 picogram $=10^{-12}$ grams). And if one says that there are 0.6 mmol of alanine per gDCW of mouse cells, this means that the total alanine content of $10^{12}/300$ mouse cells is 0.6 mmol. Is this accurate?


Your Answer


Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.