Researchers at AIST have developed a new analytical technique that evaluates the quality of culture media and culture supplements used for culturing cells and microorganisms by identifying patterns in their overall composition.
In biomanufacturing, quality control of culture media and culture supplements is essential to ensure the stability and reproducibility of cell culture. However, these are complex mixtures composed of numerous components, and analyzing and evaluating their quality for each individual component is not practical from the perspective of time and effort. Therefore, in practice, methods that confirm quality through cell culture assays are widely used. However, this method is time-consuming and depends on the initial condition of the cells and the skill level of the experimenter. Consequently, even when conducted under identical conditions, evaluation results are prone to variation, posing challenges regarding the reproducibility of the evaluation.
In this study, rather than detecting specific molecules individually, we developed an analytical technique that captures the overall composition of culture media and culture supplements as fluorescence patterns from synthetic polymer probes incorporating aggregation-induced emission dyes. We demonstrated that by processing these patterns using data analysis methods such as machine learning, it is possible to evaluate differences between media and changes in their state with high precision. Using this technology, we successfully detected quality differences not only in serum used as a culture supplement, including differences in geographic origin and lot-to-lot variations, but also in supplements for stem cell and microbial cultures. In other words, this technology has established a new method for simply evaluating the quality of culture media and supplements without relying on the analysis of individual components or cell culture assays.
Details of this technology were published in "Chemical Science" on May 13, 2026.
Background
With advances in biotechnology, the biomanufacturing industry—which produces useful substances, functional materials, and cultured meat, in addition to pharmaceuticals and regenerative medicine products—is expanding globally and is recognized as a key industry supporting a sustainable society. In cell culture, one of the foundations of this industry, the quality of culture media and culture supplements determines cell proliferation rates, production efficiency, and product quality. However, culture media and culture supplements are complex mixtures composed of numerous components—including proteins, amino acids, sugars, and vitamins—and quality variations can arise due to differences in raw materials, manufacturing processes, and storage conditions. These include not only naturally derived substances, such as serum and culture supplements used in microbial culture, but also synthetic supplements for stem cell culture, and quality variations in all these pose significant challenges. Such quality variations can lead to manufacturing issues, such as reduced production yields and inconsistent product quality.
For example, fetal bovine serum, a common culture supplement, presents challenges such as batch-to-batch variability and uncertainty regarding its composition due to its natural origin, and its quality can deteriorate depending on storage conditions. However, it is not easy to individually evaluate which components of such complex samples contribute to culture function and in what way. Consequently, a widely used method involves culturing cells and observing their proliferation and differentiation to assess the quality of the medium and culture supplements. However, this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the results depend on the initial state of the cells and the skill level of the experimenter.
Points
- Developed an analytical technique to assess the quality of culture media and culture supplements based on their overall characteristics rather than by examining each individual component
- Successfully detected differences and changes in culture medium composition—which are difficult to detect using conventional methods—as distinct patterns using a sensor that employs multiple fluorescent polymers.
- Expected to contribute to improved quality in biomanufacturing by streamlining pre-culture quality checks and preventing culture-related issues before they occur
