Thermo Fisher Scientifics’ New Pluripotent Stem Cell Media Eliminates Need for Daily Feeding
Media allows two full-day breaks without changes to set up or protocol, increasing researcher schedule flexibility whilst reducing unnecessary variability in stem cell cultures.
24 Jun 2015A new pluripotent stem cell (PSC) medium has been designed to allow two-day breaks from culture feeding without having to make changes to current workflows or compromise culture quality, offering researchers unprecedented schedule flexibility.
Culturing PSC’s is a technical and time-consuming process. Many stem cell media components, such as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), lose activity at physiologically relevant temperatures and, therefore, stem cell cultures must be fed daily to preserve pluripotency and tri-lineage differentiation potential. To achieve this, scientists typically must work through the weekend or delegate feeding steps to other scientists, which can introduce unnecessary variability.
“Reducing the need for daily feeding changes the paradigm for how stem cells are regularly managed by eliminating a painful need to be with cells every day of every week for as long as the experiment continues,” said Amy Butler, vice president and general manager of Cell Biology at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “While other solutions may claim to reduce the need for daily feeding, they require protocol and schedule changes and often sample recovery steps, which can greatly impact the quality of PSCs. Our new Essential 8 Flex Medium requires no compromises, giving researchers control over their PSC culture schedules.”
Essential 8 Flex Medium is an optimized formulation that grows and maintains PSCs over an extended length of time. Unlike other commercially available PSC culture solutions that promise, “weekend-free feeding,” the new Gibco medium does not require substantial split-ratio adjustments prior to the break in feeding. Moreover, Essential 8 Flex Medium retains nearly 90 percent FGF2 activity after 72 hours, while competitor brands fall to close to 10 percent FGF2 activity within 24 hours.
The Gibco Essential 8 Flex Media is for research use only and is part of the Gibco Essential 8 Medium family of products launched in partnership with Cellular Dynamics International, a FUJIFILM company.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is debuting its new Gibco Essential 8 Flex Medium at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2015 Annual Meeting, June 24-27, 2015 at the Stockholmsmässan Exhibition & Convention Center, Stockholm, Sweden Booth B06:32 and B06:33.