Objective

Cells grown in defined, animal component-free media are susceptible to impaired growth and viability when subjected to stress. This is particularly relevant when screening for highly productive biopharmaceutical-producer cell lines, with cells focusing resources on high levels of antibody production likely to be at an evolutionary disadvantage – and suffer higher attrition rates – compared to non-producers. Common challenges include plating at low density (limiting dilution cloning and post-cloning outgrowth), recovery from cryopreservation, and growth in semi-solid media. Building on extensive expertise growing cells under defined conditions, SAL Scientific have developed the InstiGRO™ and InstiTHAW™ range of animal component-free media supplements that dramatically improve the growth and viability of cells subjected to stress, and the InstiSHAKE™ range of supplements that deliver substantial enhancements in the growth kinetics of cells in routine culture. Supplements in each application category have been optimised for CHO and HEK cells. Here, we present data from a series of experiments testing the utility of these supplements in a range of applications.