Traditionally, Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) has been used as an additive to cell culture media for the in vitro growth of pluripotent stem cells. FBS is an inherently variable component of the cell culture system, so consistent performance demands extensive screening of manufactured lots. To circumvent this problem, companies began offering “stem cell qualified” serum. One issue with this solution is that the qualification is not always performed on a stem cell line relevant to the researcher’s own cell lines. Years later, researchers began using Life Technologies Knockout® Serum Replacement (KOSR) to grow and maintain undifferentiated human embryonic stem (ES) cells in culture. While KOSR has shown to be more stable than FBS and performs better in maintaining undifferentiated ES and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, it is expensive and many researchers are today looking for a more cost effective media solution for their pluripotent stem cell culture. To address this need in the scientific community, GlobalStem now offers a more economical solution with their new PluriQ™ Serum Replacement.