Designing media for animal cell culture: CHO cells, the industrial standard.

The success of culturing CHO cells solely depends on functionality of the used media. Cell culture technology is more than 50 years old, and the knowledge of cell requirements increased steadily. In the beginning, animal-sourced components were the key to growth. Nowadays state-of-the-art media do not contain any animal or naturally sourced components. The compositions are based on scientific awareness of the needs of the cells. The result is high lot-to-lot consistency and high performance.In this book section, a method for the development of a synthetic, animal component-free medium is described. The composition is based on public available formulations and information based on the work of many scientists printed in numerous papers and manuscripts. The method shall help beginners to design their own medium, although some knowledge of biochemistry and animal cells is still required.