Just what stem cells need. Nothing they don’t.

Starting with the original formulation, Gibco Essential 8 Medium is our most defined and consistent feeder-free medium for induced pluripotent stem cell culture. It has been optimized for a wide variety of applications to help researchers achieve ultimate control over their PSC culture systems.

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Essential 8 Resources

Where do you need more control over your PSC Culture?

Routine PSC maintenance and expansion

Where would you like to gain control? Compare Essential 8 for different applications.

PSC maintenance and expansion Essential 8 Medium
  • Consistent—no BSA reducing variability compared to existing feeder-free culture media
  • Cost effective—economical and scalable PSC culture compared to other feeder-free media
  • Robust—reliable and consistent cultures with a xeno-free, cGMP defined medium
Flexible feeding schedule Essential 8 Flex Medium
  • Eliminate daily feeding—Stabilized FGF2 enables maintenance of pluripotency over a 2-day period without feeding cells and without adjustments to your typical culture protocol
  • Easy to transition—Same set-up, applications, and protocol as the original Essential 8 formulations
  • Proven—Based on the original Essential 8 formulation, maintains pluripotency and normal karyotypes in long-term culture
Embryoid body formation and differentiation Essential 6 Medium
  • Flexibility—provides a flexible format where the levels of TGFB and bFGF can be adjusted
  • Supported embryoid body formation—does not contain bFGF which inhibits embryoid body formation and differentiation
  • Increased reprogramming efficiency—does not contain TFGB which has a negative effect on reprogramming efficiency
Stressful events
 Essential 8 Medium + RevitaCell Supplement
  • Minimize the impact of stress—RevitaCell Supplement supports cells in stressful applications through a more specific ROCK inhibitor
  • Non-addictive—Shown to have a non-addictive impact on downstream cell utility unlike other ROCK inhibitors
  • Expanded applications—Enabling use of Essential 8 medium in applications where cells need additional support
Adaptation from feeder-based media Essential 8
Adaptation Kit
  • Confidently transition—adapt cells from feeder-dependent to feeder-free culture system with minimal effort and maximum cell viability
  • Physiologically relevant—expand cells with minimal differentiation

  • Scalable—passage stem cell lines as single cells with no impact to genetic stability
Minimize the impact of stress – RevitaCell Supplement supports cells in stressful applications through a more specific ROCK inhibitor
Non-addictive – Shown to have a non-addictive impact on downstream cell utility unlike other ROCK inhibitors
Expanded applications – Enabling use of Essential 8 medium in applications where cells need additional support

Related products

The Essential 8 Media system and accompanying reagents provide the most defined and consistent culture conditions for pluripotent stem cells. Each of the recommended reagents across the following workflow is defined and  xenofree, allowing for consistent results every time. Below is an example of a workflow advancing from reprogramming to differentiation utilizing the Essential 8 Media system.

essential 6

CytoTune-iPS 2.0  Sendai Reprogramming Kit  contains a polycistronic vector which offers an increased reprogramming efficiency up to 1.2%

essential 8

Essential 8 Medium contains only the 8 necessary components needed for stem cell culture enabling more consistent culture

psc

PSC Cryopreservation Kit contains a xeno-free, ready-to-use cryopreservation medium and a chemically defined recovery supplement, RevitaCell Supplement, that consistently recovers 50% more viable cells post-thaw

essential 6

Essential 6 Medium does not contain bFGF which is used to prevent differentiation and maintain pluripotency

Support resources

For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. Essential 8 and Essential 6 are trademarks of Cellular Dynamics International, Inc.