ABSTRACT
The rapidly increasing trend to employ baculovirus expression vector system for the expression of foreign genes in insect cells has established a need for serum-free media (SFM) development for use in large-scale expression systems. All cultured insect cell lines up to have been initiated and established in media fortified with fetal bovine sera and other uncharacterized additives. The most practical and versatile method of growing insect cells in suspension is in a 100 ml shake flask. This method is not oxygen-limited and provides ideal in vitro conditions for cell growth nutritionally optimized media. The use of insect cell culture and related technologies is no longer limited to academic research as an in vitro model for the examination of novel recombinant constructs and expression techniques. Considerable progress has been made to date in optimizing SFM formulations for insect cell culture.
