Fatal Bovine Serum?

A plea to reduce or replace fetal bovine serum in cell culture media

“…That creates the opportunity for abuse (Hodgson 1991(Hodgson , 1993Bohn 1995). And abuses have occurred and happen until now.…”

A Severe Case of Fraudulent Blending of Fetal Bovine Serum Strengthens the Case for Serum-free Cell and Tissue Culture Applications

“…15 As well as concerns about the number of animals required to supply the FBS market, there are additional concerns that this market is only loosely regulated [18][19][20][21] -and this creates opportunities for abuse. 18,19,22 This abuse has been evident in the past, and is most likely still happening now. For example, in 1994 it was reported 20 that approximately 30,000 litres of "New Zealand" FBS was sold worldwide.…”

Size does matter

“…By purifying Rags under several conditions, we identified five proteins that form a novel complex, which we named "Ragulator" ( 5,6). There is a mutation in humans that partially reduces the expression of one of the Ragulator components, and patients carrying this mutation are substantially smaller in size than their peers, a characteristic of mTORC1 pathway inhibition in model organisms ( 1,2,7).…”