Efforts need to be made to improve and develop a completely defined and xeno-free cell culture medium. Accordingly, components of animal origin used in the culture of T cells should be replaced with relevant protein sources and concentrations. Using a combination of metabolomics and process optimization, Nucleus Biologics has identified a new formulation named NB-ROC.
In this study, we tested NB-ROC on T cells isolated from the blood of three donors using standard protocols. Our data show that NB-ROC allowed cells to grow in higher numbers compared to OpTmizer™ (Fisher Scientific). This increase in proliferation did not compromise early memory phenotypes. Additionally, transduction using a GFP lentivirus was ~40% higher when cells were grown and activated in NB-ROC, which results in optimization of virus usage and reduction of manufacturing costs.