Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) is one of the most commonly used of all cell culture media. MEM can be used with a variety of suspension and adherent mammalian cells, including HeLa, BHK-21, 293, HEP-2, HT-1080, MCF-7, fibroblasts, and primary rat astrocytes. Life Technologies offers a variety of Gibco® MEM modifications for a range of cell culture applications. Find the right formulation using the media selector tool.

This MEM is modified as follows:

With Without
• Phenol Red • L-glutamine
• Earle's salts • HEPES
  • Sodium Bicarbonate

The complete formulation is available.

Gibco® MEM, developed by Harry Eagle, was based on his earlier formulation of Basal Medium Eagle (BME). Many other modifications of MEM followed, including Glasgow’s MEM, MEM α, DMEM, and Temin’s Modification. To allow autoclaving this medium, choline chloride is substituted with choline bitartrate, phenol red is reduced, and succinic acid is added to prevent precipitation at low pH. This MEM formulation contains Earle’s salts for use in a CO2 incubator. This product is made with Earle’s salts.

Product Intended Use
For in vitro diagnostic use. CAUTION: Not for human or animal therapeutic use. Uses other than the intended use may be a violation of local law.

Dual-Site cGMP Manufacturing
For supply chain continuity, Life Technologies manufactures Gibco® MEM at two separate facilities located in Grand Island, NY and Scotland, UK. Both sites are compliant with cGMP manufacturing requirements, are certified to ISO 13485, and are registered with the FDA as medical device manufacturers. In addition, the New York facility has ISO 9001 certification.

MEM contains no proteins, lipids, or growth factors. Therefore, MEM requires supplementation, commonly with 10% Fetal Bovine Serum(FBS). MEM uses a sodium bicarbonate buffer system (2.2 g/L) and therefore requires a 5-10% CO2 environment to maintain physiological pH.

This autoclavable form of Gibco® cell culture medium requires pH adjustment to 4.1 - 4.2 before autoclaving, following by sodium bicarbonate and L-glutamine supplementation and final pH adjustment to 7.2 – 7.4 (see protocol for details).

在中国境内, 本产品仅限于非临床科研用途, 产品信息以中文为准。 (In China territory, the product is for Research Use only in non-clinical unit, product information in Chinese shall prevail.)