Beyond FBS: What Serum Does and How to Replace It in Cell Culture

Fetal bovine serum is simultaneously performing at least five distinct functional roles in your cell culture flask. Most serum-free transitions fail because researchers only account for two or three of them. This webinar is for scientists who want to move away from FBS and need a practical, mechanistic framework for doing it right the first time. 

Drawing on experience developing both broad-spectrum FBS replacements and highly optimised serum-free formulations for specific cell types and applications, this session gives attendees a clear functional map of what they're actually replacing, a decision framework for choosing the right strategy, and a diagnostic guide to the failure modes they're most likely to encounter, plus when in the transition process to expect them.

In this webinar, you will:

• Identify the functional roles FBS plays in complete media and recognise what deficiency in each category actually looks like in your flask.
• Decide whether a build-your-own formulation, commercial product, or bespoke optimisation using DoE or Bayesian methods is the right fit for your application.
• Diagnose four common failure modes for going serum-free based on when they appear in the transition timeline, plus where to start troubleshooting each one.

Download a white paper on transitioning cell lines to serum-free culture and learn about FRS Pioneer, Media City Scientific's broad-spectrum and chemically defined FBS replacement.