BenchStable Cell Culture Media

Q: Can I store BenchStable media cold?

Yes, BenchStable media can alternatively be stored at 2–8°C.

Engineered for flexibility and convenience

Save your lab’s valuable cold storage space with Gibco BenchStable Media, engineered for flexibility and convenience and enabling storage at room temperature. Available in the most commonly used basal media formulations: DMEM, DMEM/F-12, MEM, and RPMI 1640. BenchStable media have been optimized for routine cell culture, maintaining expected morphology and function of many common cell lines.

Stable at room temperature—no need to refrigerate means it’s ready when you need it
Flexibility—store it anywhere: on your lab bench or in the refrigerator
Easy to use—direct replacement for your current media when supplemented with ≥ 10% FBS
Light protection—bottles provided in protective packaging to mitigate the risk of light exposure; no more wrapping bottles in foil

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Sustainable solutions

Gibco BenchStable Media have more sustainable packaging and helps reduce energy consumption by promoting the efficient use of cold storage when compared to traditional media.

Download the BenchStable Media green fact sheet

Energy efficient

Globally, a switch by scientists to Gibco BenchStable media from current refrigerated media would save 34 GWh of energy each year, equivalent to the yearly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from more than 5,000 passenger cars.

Recyclable materials

BenchStable media is packaged in the Gibco bottle made from PET with HDPE lid—two of the most highly recycled plastics. The media bottle comes in protective packaging, a paperboard box made from 100% recyclable material, to prevent degradation from light exposure.

Protective packaging

While the paperboard box is added packaging, it contributes 0.05 lb of CO2 equivalents compared with the 6.5 lb of CO2 equivalents saved by enabling ambient media storage, resulting in a 6.45 lb of CO2 equivalents benefit with a switch to BenchStable media.

For more information on the development of sustainable products, visit thermofisher.com/sustainability

Reliable results for routine cell culture

BenchStable media maintain expected growth rates

Graph of population doubling times for 4 human cell lines when grown in standard and BenchStable media

Figure 1. BenchStable media support equivalent growth rates in long term cultures. HeLa (MEM; pink), HEK293 (DMEM; blue), Jurkat (RPMI; green), and SH-SY5Y (DMEM/F-12; yellow) cells were grown in standard (closed points) and BenchStable (open points) media supplemented with 10% FBS for 15 passages. Cell counts at each passage were used to calculate population doubling times.

Figure 2. BenchStable media support equivalent growth rates in short-term cultures. A549 (MEM; pink), MCF7 (DMEM; blue), THP-1 (RPMI; green), and CHO-K1 (DMEM/F-12; yellow) cells were grown in standard (closed points) and BenchStable (open points) media supplemented with 10% FBS for 5 passages. Cell counts at each passage were used to calculate population doubling times.

BenchStable media maintain cell morphology

Brightfield microscope views of HEK293 cells grown in standard and BenchStable media

Figure 3. BenchStable DMEM supports HEK293 cell culture. HEK293 human embryonic kidney cells were cultured for 15 passages in DMEM (left; Cat. No. 10566016) or BenchStable DMEM (right; Cat. No. A4192101) supplemented with 10% FBS. Images were captured at passage 15 using 10x magnification on an EVOS FL Auto Imaging System.

Brightfield microscope views of HeLa cells grown in standard and BenchStable media

Figure 4. BenchStable MEM supports HeLa cell culture. HeLa human cervical adenocarcinoma cells were cultured for 15 passages in MEM (left; Cat. No. 41090036) or BenchStable MEM (right; Cat. No. A4192201) supplemented with 10% FBS. Images were captured at passage 15 using 10x magnification on an EVOS FL Auto Imaging System.

BenchStable media maintain cell health

Fluorescence microscopy images of HeLa cells grown in standard and BenchStable media showing red-stained mitochondria and blue-stained nuclei

Figure 5. Cells cultured in BenchStable media maintain healthy mitochondria. HeLa cells cultured in DMEM (left) and BenchStable DMEM (right) for eight passages were stained with tetramethyl rhodamine methyl ester (TMRM; Cat. No. T668) and Hoechst (Cat. No. 33342). TMRM is a cell-permeant dye that accumulates in active mitochondria, resulting in a bright signal in healthy cells.

Equivalent transfection efficiency

Fluorescence microscopy images of GFP-expressing HeLa cells along with bar chart showing the calculated GFP plasmid transfection efficiencies

Figure 6. Equivalent transfection efficiency in BenchStable media cultures. HeLa cells cultured in MEM (left) and BenchStable MEM (right) for over five passages were transfected with a GFP-containing plasmid DNA via Lipofectamine 3000 (Cat. No. L3000015). Transfection efficiency was measured in cells harvested 24 h post-transfection by analysis on the Attune NxT Flow Cytometer, using untransfected cells as negative control.

Comparable gene expression with cells in BenchStable media

4-panel fluorescence microscopy images showing cellular structures stained with red, blue, and green fluorescence

Figure 7. Effective differentiation in BenchStable media SH-SY5Y cultures. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells cultured in DMEM/F-12 (left panels) and BenchStable DMEM/F-12 (right panels) were treated with 10 µM retinoic acid and allowed to differentiate for 5 days. Cells were stained with Alexa Fluor 488 phalloidin (green; Cat. No. A12379) and Hoechst (blue; Cat. No. 33342) to allow visualization of extended, branched neuron-like processes (top panels). Cholinergic neuron-like phenotypes (bottom panels) were shown by staining parallel cultures for tubulin (red; Cat. Nos. MA1-118x and A11005 for primary and secondary antibody) and choline acetyl transferase (ChAT, green; Cat. Nos. PA1-4738 and A11034 for primary and secondary antibodies).

In creating this next innovation in cell culture media, we took great care to help ensure BenchStable Media will provide the quality and consistency that you rely on. Figure 8 shows the negative impact light has on all standard media and is the reason behind our protective packaging. Figure 9 illustrates that essential vitamin and amino acid levels are consistently maintained in BenchStable media that are stored at ambient room temperatures.

Light negatively impacts standard basal media performance

graph showing reduction in HEK293 growth rate after 25 days of light exposure

image of light protected and light exposed cells

Figure 8. Light exposure alters media performance. DMEM/F-12 regularly exposed to standard laboratory light was supplemented with 10% FBS and used to culture HEK293 cells over a period of 4 weeks. After 25 days of light exposure HEK293 growth rates were significantly reduced. Images were taken approximately 95 hours after plating HEK293 cells at passage seven.

BenchStable media maintain necessary vitamin and amino acid levels

Line graphs of vitamin and amino acid concentration vs time for BenchStable RPMI media

Line graphs of vitamin and amino acid concentration vs time for BenchStable DMEM/F-12 media

Figure 9. Media components remain consistent in BenchStable media. BenchStable RPMI (left) and BenchStable DMEM/F-12 (right) media were maintained at room temperature (20–25°C) for 13 months. Samples taken at 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 13 months were assessed for vitamin and amino acid concentrations via HPLC and compared with concentrations in lot-matched media stored at 2–8°C.

Customer stories

The convenience of storage is great. It is also very helpful not to have to wait for the media to warm up. I have cultured both my murine tumor cell lines and human cell lines with BenchStable media and my standard media and the results were comparable. Our fridge is packed full; therefore it is a benefit to have the flexibility to store BenchStable media on our lab benches or in a cabinet.

— Nathalie Heider-Hoenatsch, PhD Candidate, University Hospital Bonn, Germany

I’ve been using your room temperature stable media for the past few weeks, and it’s been great. There’s no noticeable difference between BenchStable DMEM and standard DMEM. The cells we’ve been using have been growing at the same rate and maintaining the same phenotype in both types of media (across 4 passages). Room temperature storage is great because we have more storage space in the lab (at room temperature) than we have in the refrigerator.

— Janty Shoga, Research Engineer, Gemstone Biotherapeutics LLC

BenchStable media are extremely convenient to use. We were able to avoid the process of warming the media before use, hence saving us time. The media since stored at room temperature saves a lot of space in the refrigerator, which can be occupied by other reagents. Recently, we had a power outage for 2 days due to a hurricane and did not have to worry about the storage or stability of BenchStable media. Performance-wise our MDA-MB and MCF-7 cells adhered and proliferated similarly to conventional media making it super convenient.

— Dr. Vivek A Kamat, Florida International University, USA

In recent weeks, I have used the new Gibco BenchStable DMEM for mouse myeloma cells and various mouse hybridoma cells. The results regarding cell growth and monoclonal antibody yield were comparable to the original Gibco DMEM. The big advantage of BenchStable DMEM is the storage at room temperature and no need to warm the media before use. I give a 100% recommendation for these innovative new media.

— Sabine Buchmeier, Antibody Facility, Braunschweig, Germany

Performance

BenchStable media maintain expected growth rates

Functionality