imMedia™ Growth Medium, agar, ampicillin - FAQs

What is the shelf life of imMedia medium?

imMedia medium is provided in sealed pouches and should be stored at room temperature. When stored properly, the stability and quality of imMedia medium is guaranteed for one year from the date of shipment.

How do you test imMedia?

To ensure the consistency and quality of imMedia, each lot is tested for sterility, E. coli growth support, and selection efficiency using E. coli strains that carry the appropriate antibiotic resistance marker. imMedia must display the same growth support and selection efficiency as conventional LB medium. imMedia Blue products are further tested to ensure efficient blue color development. Colonies grown on agar plates prepared with imMedia Blue medium must develop a deep blue color within 16 hours of incubation at 37 C.

Do I have to use sterilized water and flasks to prepare imMedia?

No. While sterilized water and flasks are preferred in all medium preparation, we use deionized water and clean, washed flasks in our quality control experiments to test the sterility of imMedia. The pre-sterilized imMedia components, microwaving process, and the presence of antibiotic ensure that the medium maintains sterility during overnight incubation.

Is imMedia sterile?

Yes. The components in each imMedia pouch are pre-sterilized by irradiation. This allows for preparation of sterile medium without autoclaving.

What is in imMedia?

imMedia is supplied in individual ready-to-use pouches. Each pouch contains low-salt LB medium components, with or without agar, and antibiotic (Ampicillin, Kanamycin, or Zeocin). The imMedia Blue products also include IPTG and X-gal for blue/white colony screening. To maintain the activities of heat-sensitive media components (i.e. antibiotics, IPTG, and X-gal) during and after microwave heating, imMedia contains special heat stabilizers.

What are the effective concentrations for the antibiotics, IPTG, and X-gal in your imMedia products?

The effective antibiotic concentrations in imMedia is: Ampicillin - 100 ug/ml, Kanamycin - 50 ug/ml, Zeocin - 25 ug/ml. Plates for blue/white color selection contain: IPTG - 100 ug/ml, X-gal - 100 ug/ml.

I need to buy media to prepare agar plates, which I will be using to grow colonies after transformation (molecular cloning). Which product would you recommend?

We offer two options:

The first is our formulation of LB agar (catalog number 22700-025), which has LB Media and agar mixed together. This comes in a 500g and 2.5 kg size. All you have to do is measure out, add water, and autoclave.

The second option is even easier. Our imMedia comes premeasured in pouches. We have three types: imMedia Amp Agar, Kan Agar and Zeo Agar for ampicillin, kanamycin and Zeocin-containing plates. All you have to do is empty the pouch, add water, heat and pour plates. No autoclaving is needed! Each pouch contains sufficient reagents for 8-10 plates.

imMedia Amp Agar, 20 pouches, Q601-20

imMedia Kan Agar, 20 pouches, Q611-20

imMedia Zeo Agar, 20 pouches, Q621-20

For added convenience, you should also check out our LB medium imMedia products: (Each pouch makes 200 mL of media)

imMedia Amp Liquid, 20 pouches, Q600-20

imMedia Kan Liquid, 20 pouches, Q610-20

imMedia Zeo Liquid, 20 pouches, Q620-20