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Sera

Serum is added to a bottle via dropper

With more than 35 years of experience in the management and production of sera for use in cell culture, we offer many varieties of FBS and other bovine (cow) serum, chicken, caprine (goat), equine (horse), human, ovine (sheep), porcine (pig) and rabbit sera produced and tested for use in cell culture applications. Every serum product we offer is tested for viral contamination and cell culture performance, and is supported with certification of origin.  

FBS (fetal bovine serum) is an essential supplement for labs around the world that perform cell culture. Our FBS Classic, FBS Premier, and FBS Select portfolios help you navigate serum selection by considering serum attributes that are important to your process. These classifications recognize the needs of labs conducting general cell culture; biomanufacturing and applications requiring stringent quality testing; and the culture of more specialized or fastidious cell phenotypes, to enable confident selection of the right FBS for your cell culture performance, documentation, and optimization needs.

We manage and segregate our adult, newborn and fetal bovine sera (FBS) inventories by country and/or region of origin to meet US and international regulatory standards and restrictions. Our FBS products are collected into USA-sourced and non-USA-sourced categories, and we offer USA-origin horse and goat sera from donor herds. Our non-USA sourced FBS is lot-designated and managed as USDA-approved or country/region of origin/restricted sales, and we offer lot testing and matching for all FBS products. Our human sera are sourced and comprehensively tested to meet public safety requirements. In addition to complete sera solutions, we offer serum replacement products for optimal growth of cultures that require serum-free conditions.  

Section Overview

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Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)

Our FBS product selection categories help you choose the right FBS product for your general or specific cell culture application need, based on attributes relevant to your workflow:

  • FBS Classic: Our best value fetal bovine sera for general cell culture applications
  • FBS Premier: For culture processes like biomanufacturing that require stringent testing and release procedures based on internationally-determined standards, these products must pass rigorous testing of up to 56 defined quality release parameters
  • FBS Select: These FBS products meet standards for tailored supplementation of stem cells, cardiomyocytes, and cells cultured for immunotherapeutic development---just to name a few specialized cell phenotypes.

Calf and adult Bovine Sera

Like FBS, neonatal calf serum contains growth factors and nutrients that can provide a cost-effective alternative to FBS for some culture applications. Adult bovine serum is also used to supplement culture media to promote growth and proliferation. These sera may be an economical option for applications where the presence of antibodies and other immune factors in sera will not impact cultures.

Human Serum

Human serum is vital for biomedical applications that include tissue engineering, transplantation and cell therapy development. For certain human cell culture applications, human serum may be a more optimal choice than FBS. These include cell invasion studies and methods that involve the formation of spheroids. Our human serum products are serially sterile-filtered and tested for the absence of HBsAg, Hepatitis A, and HIV, as well as other relevant bacteria, viruses, toxins, and hemoglobin. Biological performance is assessed using cell culture medium supplemented with the serum for seven days to ensure suitability for culture.

Sera from Other Animal Species

Beyond bovine serum, sera from other species may also be used as more cost-effective alternatives for supplementation of basal cell culture media, or for applications requiring species-specific sera. Animal sera are fundamental reagents for immunodetection protocols, where they are used to block nonspecific binding and enhance signal/noise ratio. We offer sera from diverse species that include horse, goat, rabbit, sheep, pig, rat and mouse.

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