Serum-Free Expansion Media for Stem Cells and Immune Cells
ExCellerate Cell Expansion Media provide an optimized serum-free culture environment for the generation and expansion of individual immune cell types and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
- Robust expansion and maintenance of cell cultures
- Reduce variability in your cell cultures
- Streamline comparability testing if raw material changes are required
- Cross-reference Drug Master Files to facilitate regulatory compliance
- Reduce time-to-market for your cell therapy
Each production lot of ExCellerate media is thoroughly tested for consistent quality and performance.
Immune Cell Expansion Media
Mitigating risk and embedding flexibility into your cell culture process will improve process reproducibility and accelerate your immune cell therapy development. These ExCellerate cell expansion media are optimized for specific cell types and are key to building a culture process that ensures high yields and high quality.
ExCellerate Human NK Cell Expansion Media
- Made from completely animal-free raw materials
- Serum-free and phenol red-free formulation
- Maintains high fold expansion and killing capacity
- Enables restimulation without exhaustion
View ExCellerate NK Cell Expansion Media Data
Purified NK cells from PBMCs of 3 donors were grown in a feeder-free process on G-Rex® plates over a 14-day culture, according to this protocol. ExCellerate NK Media (Catalog # CCM037) outperformed other media suppliers, showing greater NK cell growth under feeder-free conditions compared to other NK cell expansion media.
Purified NK cells from PBMCs were grown in a feeder-free, serum-free process over a 14-day culture, according to this protocol. Only ExCellerate NK Cell Expansion Media (Catalog # CCM037) allowed for the feeder-free growth of NK cells without serum.
ExCellerate Human T Cell Media, Animal Component-Free
ExCellerate Human T Cell Media, Animal Component-Free
- Animal-free formulation for ex vivo culture of human T cell lymphocytes
- Robust T cell expansion from PBMCs or purified CD3+ T cells
- Compatible with a variety of T cell activation methods
ExCellerate B Cell Media
ExCellerate B Cell Media
- Xeno-free formulation for ex vivo culture of B lymphocytes
- Robust expansion of B cells from peripheral blood in multiple species
- Supports antigen-specific B cell clonogenicity and hybridoma culture
GMP Human T Cell Media
GMP Human T Cell Media
- Clinic-ready formulation
- Robust T cell expansion from PBMCs or purified T cells
- Adopted by academic and biopharma clinical programs
Bio-Techne believes in the power of partnerships. We have joined with Fresenius Kabi and Wilson Wolf to bring you ScaleReady™, lowering the barriers to entry into the immune cell therapy space for all sizes and stages of manufacturing programs. ScaleReady brings cell and gene therapies to life by offering a significant reduction of complexity and cost while consistently providing superior repeatability and cell quality.
Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion Media
Achieve robust expansion and extended maintenance of your stem cells in well-defined culture media. ExCellerate iPSC Expansion Media sustains cell viability, genotype, and multi-lineage differentiation potential/pluripotency over long term culture and is compatible with various matrices and cell lines. Seamlessly transition to clinical applications with equivalent preclinical RUO and GMP-grade media.
ExCellerate GMP and Preclinical RUO Expansion Media
- Animal component-free, all-in-one formulation
- Compatible with a variety of matrices and cell lines
- Maintains stable cell integrity over long-term culture
- GMP media manufactured in an animal-free facility with ISO:9001 and ISO:13485 certifications
- Media samples available — request yours today!
View ExCellerate iPSC Expansion Media Data
Human iPSCs expanded in either the RUO or GMP version of ExCellerate iPSC Expansion Medium show similar growth kinetics. Catalog # CCM036 (RUO version) and Catalog # CCM036-GMP have the same formulation and are manufactured with the same high quality animal-free components. No significant difference in growth kinetics is seen when culturing iPSC in either CCM036 (light blue) or CCM036-GMP (blue).
Representative images of iPSC expansion and differentiation. Image A shows iPSCs expanded in culture using ExCellerate iPSC Expansion Medium (Catalog # CCM036-GMP). Image B shows the differentiation into PDX-1 expressing pancreatic progenitors (AF2419). Image C shows the presence of large population of C-peptide (MAB14171) expressing monohormonal beta cells. Image D shows the co-expression of PDX-1 and C-peptide in the population.
Transitioning Research to GMP
As you advance from discovery into process development and clinical manufacturing, we make the transition as efficient and seamless as possible. Our GMP materials are based on our research-grade products wherever possible. If GMP-grade materials are not available, our Custom Services team will work with you to convert RUO materials into products appropriate for manufacturing use.
ExCellerate Cell Expansion Media Resources
Common ExCellerate Cell Expansion Media Questions
ExCellerate media are formulated and optimized for the ex vivo culture of immune cells and stem cells. Unlike traditional serum-containing culture media, these media provide a stable culture and optimized environment, devoid of non-human animal-derived products. ExCellerate iPSC medium does not contain any animal-derived or human-derived products. ExCellerate media support the expansion of specific cell types (T cells, NK cells, B cells, or pluripotent stem cells).
Xeno-free media do not contain any non-human animal-derived components. Xeno-free media may contain human-derived components such as serum, holo-transferrin, or insulin. Animal component-free media do not contain any animal- or human-derived components. Elimination of these components further improves culture consistency compared to xeno-free media.
Using serum-free media eliminates variability from trace animal components in your culture media and reduces the risk of inconsistent results. Cultures expanded in these media are unaffected by the presence of unknown levels of vitamins, hormones, and growth factors in serum.
An organoid is a miniaturized version of an organ that can be generated in vitro under specific culture conditions from primary tissue, embryonic stem cells (ESCs), or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Organoids have similar cellular composition and architecture as their tissues of origin and exhibit functional similarities. They are typically composed of multiple different cell types, which are properly arranged with respect to both each other and the extracellular matrix. Organoids are not only capable of self-organization, they are also capable of self-renewal, and are amenable to long-term cultivation and manipulation. Researchers have developed organoid systems for many different human tissues, including intestine, stomach, colon, liver, lung, heart, pancreas, kidney, prostate, inner ear, brain, and heart, among others. These 3D in vitro model systems have opened new avenues for investigating organ development, studying physiology and disease, screening drugs, and exploring personalized medicine.
Different types of stem cells are identifiable by their specification potential.
- Pluripotent stem cells - generate all the embryonic germ layers (e.g. endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm), but are unable to generate extra-embryonic tissues (e.g. placenta). Best exemplified by embryonic stem cells (ESCs) which are derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are reprogrammed from adult differentiated cells (e.g. fibroblasts, peripheral blood mononuclear cells).
- Totipotent stem cells - generate all the cell types in the organism (e.g. zygote or fertilized egg).
- Multipotent stem cells - generate a limited number of cell types based on their tissue of origin.
- Oligopotent stem cells - generate few cell types which are closely related (e.g. myeloid stem cells).
- Unipotent stem cells - generate one cell type (e.g. epidermal stem cells, muscle stem cells).
- Mesenchymal stem cells - give rise to fat, bone, muscle and cartilage.
- Hematopoietic stem cells - give rise to different types of blood cells (e.g. platelets, red and white cells).
- Neural stem cells - give rise to neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes.
Additional Resources
- Transitioning to Animal-Free and GMP
- GMP Capabilities
- Serum-Free and Animal-Free Cell Culture
- Organoids and 3D Culture
- Cultrex™ Basement Membrane Extracts and Extracellular Matrix Proteins
- Stem Cells
- G-Rex® Bioreactors
- Immune Cell Culture
- Fluorokines™ Fluorescent-Labeled Recombinant Proteins
- TcBuster™ Gene Transfer System
- Cell and Gene Therapy
- The Organoid Culture Handbook
- Organoid Culture Protocols
- The Importance of Serum- and Animal-Free Media for Stem Cell-Based Therapeutics Article at RegMedNet
- Stem Cell Protocols at R&D Systems
- T Cell-Based Therapies eBook
- Evolution of Cell Culture Model Systems eBook at R&D Systems
- Immune Cell Protocols at R&D Systems
- Immune Cell Isolation & Culture Brochure at R&D Systems