TeSR™ Feeder-Free Pluripotent Stem Cell (PSC) Culture Media

Feeder-Free Media for Human ES and iPS Cell Reprogramming, Maintenance, and Differentiation

The TeSR™ family of feeder-free media are produced using rigorously pre-screened materials to ensure the highest levels of batch-to-batch consistency and experimental reproducibility, allowing you to minimize variation in your research. Each medium is based on published formulations1-3 from the laboratory of James Thomson, and allows researchers to maintain high quality human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) culture systems. These products provide a continuous TeSR™ media-based workflow, from generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, to maintenance, differentiation and cryopreservation of embryonic stem (ES) and iPS cells.

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Why Use mTeSR™ and the TeSR™ Media Family?

  • Feeder-free hPSC culture minimizes variability by limiting the presence of undefined components and immunogenic material.
  • mTeSR™ is the most widely published medium for hPSC culture with > 1500 peer-reviewed publications.
  • The same base formulation in each medium allows for establishment of a continuous TeSR™ media-based workflow.
Choosing TeSR™ Maintenance Medium

Choose Your TeSR™ Maintenance Medium

Use the Interactive Product Finder or this infographic to choose the TeSR™ hPSC culture medium that is best suited for your needs.

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hPSC Maintenance and Expansion Media

eTeSR™

mTeSR™ Plus

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells, optimized for single-cell passaging.

Features/Advantages:

  • Enhanced buffering, stabilization of FGF2, and optimized metabolites support cell quality while allowing for alternative feeding schedules
  • Improves the genetic stability of hPSC cultures when performing routine single-cell passaging
  • Increases cell yields while reducing the stress associated with single-cell passaging or high-density cultures
  • Eliminates spontaneous differentiation

mTeSR™ Plus

mTeSR™ Plus

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Enhanced buffering and stabilized FGF2 support cell quality while allowing for alternate feeding schedules
  • Supports superior culture morphology and cell growth characteristics
  • Enables heightened single-cell survival when used with CloneR™
  • Fully compatible with established genome editing and differentiation protocols
  • Manufactured under relevant cGMPs, enabling a seamless transition from fundamental research to drug and cell therapy development.

TeSR™-AOF

TeSR™-AOF

Formulation:

Serum-Free, Animal Origin-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • De-risk your choice of ancillary materials by selecting a medium with no animal raw materials to the secondary level of manufacturing
  • Supports high-quality colony morphology, robust attachment, and cell expansion
  • Stabilized components, including FGF2, support high cell quality while allowing for alternate feeding schedules

mTeSR™1

mTeSR™1

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Used to maintain thousands of human ES and iPS cell lines in over 60 countries for 10 years
  • Contains pre-screened BSA to stabilize medium, aid in lipid/nutrient transport, and protect cultures from cellular toxins and stresses
  • Maintenance medium of choice for many published protocols for lineage-specific differentiation of hPSCs

mTeSR™1 Without Phenol Red

mTeSR™1 Without Phenol Red

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Used to maintain thousands of human ES and iPS cell lines in over 60 countries for 10 years
  • Contains pre-screened BSA to stabilize medium, aid in lipid/nutrient transport, and protect cultures from cellular toxins and stresses
  • Maintenance medium of choice for many published protocols for lineage-specific differentiation of hPSCs

TeSR™-E8™

TeSR™-E8™

Formulation:

Animal Component-Free; Serum-Free

Applications:

Feeder-free maintenance and expansion of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Cutting-edge, animal component-free formulation
  • Contains only the 8 most critical components required for hPSC maintenance

RSeT™ Feeder-Free Medium

RSeT™ Feeder-Free Medium

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Reversion of primed human ES and iPS cells to a naïve-like state and their maintenance in a naïve-like state under hypoxic conditions.

Features/Advantages:

  • Feeder-independent culture system reduces inherent variability, cost, and burden of feeder preparation
  • Serum-free formulation contains pre-screened quality components for reproducible results
  • Facilitates highly efficient reversion to naïve-like state with stable domed morphology, naïve gene expression profiles, and low levels of spontaneous differentiation without the need for exogenous genes
  • Maintains naïve-like pluripotency without inclusion of bFGF
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cGMP hPSC Maintenance Medium

Think forward to the clinic in your hPSC research. Our stabilized feeder-free hPSC maintenance medium, mTeSR™ Plus, is now manufactured and tested following relevant cGMPs under a certified quality management system. Find more information about regulatory compliance at STEMCELL >


mTeSR™ Plus hPSC maintenance medium with enhanced pH buffering

How is mTeSR™ Plus different from other maintenance media?

mTeSR™ Plus was designed based on the formulation of mTeSR™1. This version contains stabilized components including FGF2 and unlike other media offers enhanced buffering to reduce medium acidification so that cell quality is preserved during skipped media changes.

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Advantages:

  • Enhanced buffering and stabilized FGF2 support cell quality while allowing for alternate feeding schedules
  • Supports superior culture morphology and cell growth characteristics
  • Enables heightened single-cell survival when used with CloneR™
  • Fully compatible with established genome editing and differentiation protocols
  • Manufactured under relevant cGMPs, enabling a seamless transition from fundamental research to drug and cell therapy development

Learn more about mTeSR™ Plus and try it in your own lab.

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hPSC Differentiation Media

TeSR™-E5

TeSR™-E5

Formulation:

Serum-Free; Xeno-Free

Applications:

Differentiation of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Based on TeSR™-E8™, but does not contain bFGF, TGFβ, or insulin
  • Ideal for differentiation to lineages, such as cardiomyocyte, in which insulin is a known inhibitor

TeSR™-E6

TeSR™-E6

Formulation:

Serum-Free; Xeno-Free

Applications:

Differentiation of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Based on TeSR™-E8™, but does not contain bFGF or TGFβ
  • Lineage-neutral base formulation ideal for differentiation, screening, and other applications
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Consistent differentiation of ES and iPS cell lines can be challenging. We recommend our STEMdiff™ suite of products for optimal and reproducible differentiation.


hPSC Cryopreservation Media

CryoStor® CS10

CryoStor® CS10

Formulation:

cGMP-Manufactured; Animal Component-Free; Serum-Free

Applications:

Cryopreservation of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Animal component-free
  • Maintains high cell viability and maximizes cell recovery after long-term storage

mFreSR™

mFreSR™

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Cryopreservation of human ES and iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Optimized for hPSCs preserved as aggregates
  • Higher thawing efficiencies than reported with conventional serum-containing media

FreSR™-S

FreSR™-S

Formulation:

Animal Component-Free; Serum-Free

Applications:

Cryopreservation of human ES and iPS cells as single cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Animal component-free
  • Optimized for cryopreservation of cells in single-cell suspension
  • Higher thawing efficiencies than reported with conventional serum-containing media
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iPS Cell Reprogramming Media and Kits

ReproTeSR™ Medium for Reprogramming

ReproTeSR™ Medium for Reprogramming

Formulation:

Serum-Free; Xeno-Free

Applications:

Generation of human iPS cells from fibroblasts, urine-derived cells, and blood-derived cells such as CD34+ or erythroid precursor cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Defined, feeder-free formulation facilitates reproducibly efficient human iPS cell generation
  • Rapid emergence of large colonies with high-quality iPS cell-like morphology facilitates identification and subcloning for easily establishing iPS cell lines
  • Seamlessly integrates with STEMCELL products prior to reprogramming and after iPS cell generation for maintenance and differentiation

TeSR™-E7™ Medium for Reprogramming

TeSR™-E7™ Medium for Reprogramming

Formulation:

Serum-Free; Xeno-Free; Animal Component-Free

Applications:

Generation of human iPS cells without the use of feeders.

Features/Advantages:

  • Pre-screened components ensure high quality iPS cell colony morphology for easy identification and improved manual selection
  • Reduced differentiation and fibroblast growth enables rapid establishment of homogeneous iPS cell cultures
  • Feeder-free, defined formulation facilitates reproducibly efficient human iPS cell generation

Erythroid Progenitor Reprogramming Kit

Erythroid Progenitor Reprogramming Kit

Formulation:

Animal Component-Free; Serum-Free

Applications:

Isolation and expansion of erythroid progenitor cells from peripheral blood and their subsequent reprogramming to iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Optimized for enrichment, expansion and reprogramming of erythroid progenitor cells expanded from peripheral blood samples
  • Improved reprogramming efficiency and higher frequency of iPS cell colonies, compared to traditional hES cell medium
  • Rapid emergence of large colonies with high quality iPS cell-like morphology facilitates identification and subcloning
  • Seamlessly integrates with TeSR™ and STEMdiff™ products for downstream maintenance and differentiation of iPS cell lines

CD34+ Progenitor Reprogramming Kit

CD34+ Progenitor Reprogramming Kit

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Isolation and expansion of CD34+ progenitor cells from peripheral blood and their subsequent reprogramming to iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Optimized for enrichment, expansion and reprogramming of CD34+ progenitor cells expanded from peripheral blood samples
  • Improved reprogramming efficiency and higher frequency of iPS cell colonies, compared to traditional hES cell medium
  • Rapid emergence of large colonies with high quality iPS cell-like morphology facilitates identification and subcloning
  • Seamlessly integrates with TeSR™ and STEMdiff™ products for downstream maintenance and differentiation of iPS cell lines

ReproRNA™-OKSGM

ReproRNA™-OKSGM

Applications:

Reprogramming of somatic cells, such as fibroblasts, into iPS cells.

Features/Advantages:

  • Non-viral, non-integrating vector system
  • Self-replicating vector only requires a single transfection
  • Vector contains all reprogramming factors
  • Comparable fibroblast reprogramming efficiency to Sendai virus
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hPSC Suspension Culture Scale-Up Media

mTeSR™3D

mTeSR™3D

Formulation:

Serum-Free

Applications:

Expansion and scale-up of undifferentiated human ES and iPS cells as aggregates in 3D suspension culture.

Features/Advantages:

  • Based on mTeSR™1, optimized formulation for hPSC scale-up
  • Fed-batch culture system for a simplified workflow
  • Scale up to 109 high-quality, undifferentiated hPSCs in as few as 2 - 3 weeks

TeSR™-E8™3D

TeSR™-E8™3D

Formulation:

Animal Component-Free

Applications:

Expansion and scale-up of undifferentiated human ES and iPS cells as aggregates in 3D suspension culture.

Features/Advantages:

  • Based on TeSR™-E8™, optimized for hPSC scale-up in low protein, animal component-free conditions
  • Fed-batch culture system for a simplified workflow
  • Scale up to 109 high-quality, undifferentiated hPSCs in as few as 2 - 3 weeks

TeSR™-AOF 3D

mTeSR™ Plus

Formulation:

Animal Origin-Free

Applications:

Expansion and scale-up of undifferentiated human ES and iPS cells as aggregates in 3D suspension culture.

Features/Advantages:

  • Based on TeSR™-AOF, optimized for hPSC scale-up with no animal raw materials to the secondary level of manufacturing
  • Fed-batch culture system for a simplified workflow
  • Scale up to 109 high-quality, undifferentiated hPSCs in as few as 2 - 3 weeks
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What Are the Functions of Cytokines in TeSR™ Media and Their Impact on hPSC Culture?

  • promotes cell survival and proliferation, while also inhibiting differentiation to specific lineages (e.g. cardiomyocytes). It is present in all of our TeSR™ media (except for TeSR™-E5).
  • is an important cytokine for hPSC self-renewal and expansion and can be found in the TeSR™ reprogramming (ReproTeSR™, TeSR™-E7™) and maintenance (, , ) media.
  • inhibits reprogramming and is important for maintenance of hPSC pluripotency. TGFβ is found in all three TeSR™ maintenance media (, , ).

Brand History

In 2006, Dr. Tenneille Ludwig and colleagues of Dr. James Thomson’s lab at the University of Wisconsin reported the derivation of a new ES cell line in fully defined, feeder-free culture conditions.1,2 This first defined medium significantly improved human ES cell culture, and was commercially released as mTeSR™1, becoming the most widely published feeder-free medium, used in over 1100 peer-reviewed publications. Later, a xeno-free medium based on the same formulation was released as TeSR™2. In 2012, a new, low-protein maintenance medium called TeSR™-E8™ was released. Based on the E8 formulation3 published by Dr. Guokai Chen of Dr. James Thomson’s lab, TeSR™-E8™ contains only the most essential media components required, thereby providing a simpler medium for maintenance of hPSCs.

More recently, mTeSR™ Plus (2019) and TeSR™-AOF (Animal Origin-Free; 2021) have been released as part of STEMCELL Technologies' TeSR™ product line. mTeSR™-Plus, a feeder-free maintenance medium, allows for weekend-free schedules and differs from mTeSR™1 in its enhanced pH buffering. TeSR™-AOF is guaranteed to be free of human and animal materials to the secondary level of manufacturing, providing users with peace-of-mind around viral safety. mTeSR™ Plus, TeSR™-AOF, and mTeSR™1 are all manufactured under relevant cGMPs.

In addition to TeSR™ maintenance media, STEMCELL Technologies has developed TeSR™-based media to support other facets of the pluripotent stem cell research workflow, including media optimized for reprogramming fibroblasts (TeSR™-E7™), reprogramming blood cells and fibroblasts (ReproTeSR™), differentiation (TeSR™-E6 and TeSR™-E5), and cryopreservation (mFreSR™ and FreSR™-S).


Scientific Resources

Fluorescent microscopy of dividing human pluripotent stem cells

Quality Control for Pluripotent Stem Cells

Get to know the key quality attributes of hPSC cultures, including techniques for maintaining and assessing genomic integrity, pluripotency, and morphology.

Learn More

Panelists from Nature Research Round Table: Challenges in Ensuring hPSC Quality

Panel: Challenges in Ensuring hPSC Quality

Hear global experts discuss key issues impacting the use of human pluripotent stem cells in this series of webinars provided in partnership with Nature Research.

Watch Now

Explore more helpful resources for your hPSC research in our pluripotent resource centers and cell culture methods library


Key Applications

Toxicity Testing with Human iPS Cells

Jagtap S, Meganathan K, Gaspar J, Wagh V, Winkler J, Hescheler J and Sachinidis A (2011), Cytosine arabinoside induces ectoderm and inhibits mesoderm expression in human embryonic stem cells during multilineage differentiation, Br J Pharmacol. Vol. 162, pp. 1743-56.
Kleinstreuer NC, Smith AM, West PR, Conard KR, Fontaine BR, Weir-Hauptman AM, Palmer JA, Knudsen TB, Dix DJ, Donley ELR and Cezar GG (2011), Identifying developmental toxicity pathways for a subset of ToxCast chemicals using human embryonic stem cells and metabolomics, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology., November, 2011. Vol. 257(1), pp. 111-121.
Liang P, Lan F, Lee AS, Gong T, Sanchez-Freire V, Wang Y, Diecke S, Sallam K, Knowles JW, Wang PJ, Nguyen PK, Bers DM, Robbins RC and Wu JC (2013), Drug screening using a library of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes reveals disease-specific patterns of cardiotoxicity. Circulation., April, 2013. Vol. 127(16), pp. 1677-1691.
Liu J, Sun N, Bruce MA, Wu JC and Butte MJ (2012), Atomic Force Mechanobiology of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes, PLoS ONE., May, 2012. Vol. 7(5), pp. e37559.
Mehta A, Chung YY, Ng A, Iskandar F, Atan S, Wei H, Dusting G, Sun W, Wong P and Shim W (2011), Pharmacological response of human cardiomyocytes derived from virus-free induced pluripotent stem cells, Cardiovascular Research., September, 2011. Vol. 91(4), pp. 577-586.

Differentiating to Hematopoietic Cells

Brown ME, Rondon E, Rajesh D, Mack A, Lewis R, Feng X, Zitur LJ, Learish RD and Nuwaysir EF (2010), Derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from human peripheral blood T lymphocytes, PLoS One. Vol. 5, pp. e11373.
Carpenter L, Malladi R, Yang C-T, French A, Pilkington KJ, Forsey RW, Sloane-Stanley J, Silk KM, Davies TJ, Fairchild PJ, Enver T and Watt SM (2011), Human induced pluripotent stem cells are capable of B-cell lymphopoiesis, Blood., April, 2011. Vol. 117(15), pp. 4008-4011.
Dravid G, Zhu Y, Scholes J, Evseenko D and Crooks GM (2011), Dysregulated gene expression during hematopoietic differentiation from human embryonic stem cells, Mol Ther. Vol. 19, pp. 768-81.
Niwa A, Heike T, Umeda K, Oshima K, Kato I, Sakai H, Suemori H, Nakahata T and Saito MK (2011), A novel serum-free monolayer culture for orderly hematopoietic differentiation of human pluripotent cells via mesodermal progenitors, PLoS One. Vol. 6, pp. e22261.
Salvagiotto G, Burton S, Daigh CA, Rajesh D, Slukvin II and Seay NJ (2011), A Defined, Feeder-Free, Serum-Free System to Generate In Vitro Hematopoietic Progenitors and Differentiated Blood Cells from hESCs and hiPSCs, PLoS ONE., March, 2011. Vol. 6(3), pp. e17829.

Differentiating to Definitive Endoderm

Hannoun Z, Fletcher J, Greenhough S, Medine C, Samuel K, Sharma R, Pryde A, Black JR, Ross JA, Wilmut I, Iredale JP and Hay DC (2010), The comparison between conditioned media and serum-free media in human embryonic stem cell culture and differentiation, Cell Reprogram. Vol. 12, pp. 133-40.
Jaramillo M and Banerjee I (2012), Endothelial Cell Co-culture Mediates Maturation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell to Pancreatic Insulin Producing Cells in a Directed Differentiation Approach, Journal of Visualized Experiments., March, 2012. (61)
Miki T, Ring A and Gerlach J (2011), Hepatic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells is promoted by three-dimensional dynamic perfusion culture conditions, Tissue Eng Part C Methods. Vol. 17, pp. 557-68.
Mou H, Zhao R, Sherwood R, Ahfeldt T, Lapey A, Wain J, Sicilian L, Izvolsky K, Lau FH, Musunuru K, Cowan C and Rajagopal J (2012), Generation of Multipotent Lung and Airway Progenitors from Mouse ESCs and Patient-Specific Cystic Fibrosis iPSCs, Cell Stem Cell., April, 2012. Vol. 10(4), pp. 385-397.
Spence JR, Mayhew CN, Rankin SA, Kuhar MF, Vallance JE, Tolle K, Hoskins EE, Kalinichenko VV, Wells SI, Zorn AM, Shroyer NF and Wells JM (2011), Directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into intestinal tissue in vitro, Nature., February, 2011. Vol. 470(7332), pp. 105-109.

Scale-Up and Bioreactor Culture

Krawetz R, Taiani JT, Liu S, Meng G, Li X, Kallos MS and Rancourt DE (2010), Large-Scale Expansion of Pluripotent Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Stirred-Suspension Bioreactors, Tissue Engineering Part C: Methods., August, 2010. Vol. 16(4), pp. 573-582.
Oh SKW, Chen AK, Mok Y, Chen X, Lim U-M, Chin A, Choo ABH and Reuveny S (2009), Long-term microcarrier suspension cultures of human embryonic stem cells, Stem Cell Research., May, 2009. Vol. 2(3), pp. 219-230.
Olmer R, Haase A, Merkert S, Cui W, Palecek J, Ran C, Kirschning A, Scheper T, Glage S, Miller K, Curnow EC, Hayes ES and Martin U (2010), Long term expansion of undifferentiated human iPS and ES cells in suspension culture using a defined medium, Stem Cell Res. Vol. 5, pp. 51-64.
Singh H, Mok P, Balakrishnan T, Rahmat SN and Zweigerdt R (2010), Up-scaling single cell-inoculated suspension culture of human embryonic stem cells, Stem Cell Res. Vol. 4, pp. 165-79.
Zweigerdt R, Olmer R, Singh H, Haverich A and Martin U (2011), Scalable expansion of human pluripotent stem cells in suspension culture, Nature Protocols. Vol. 6(5), pp. 689-700.

Differentiating to Cardiomyocytes

Elliott DA, Braam SR, Koutsis K, Ng ES, Jenny R, Lagerqvist EL, Biben C, Hatzistavrou T, Hirst CE, Yu QC, Skelton RJ, Ward-van Oostwaard D, Lim SM, Khammy O, Li X, Hawes SM, Davis RP, Goulburn AL, Passier R, Prall OW, Haynes JM, Pouton CW, Kaye DM, Mummery CL, Elefanty AG and Stanley EG (2011), NKX2-5(eGFP/w) hESCs for isolation of human cardiac progenitors and cardiomyocytes, Nat Methods. Vol. 8, pp. 1037-40.
Hazeltine LB, Simmons CS, Salick MR, Lian X, Badur MG, Han W, Delgado SM, Wakatsuki T, Crone WC, Pruitt BL and Palecek SP (2012), Effects of Substrate Mechanics on Contractility of Cardiomyocytes Generated from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells, International Journal of Cell Biology. Vol. 2012, pp. 1-13.
Lian X, Hsiao C, Wilson G, Zhu K, Hazeltine LB, Azarin SM, Raval KK, Zhang J, Kamp TJ and Palecek SP (2012), Robust cardiomyocyte differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells via temporal modulation of canonical Wnt signaling, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences., July, 2012. Vol. 109(27), pp. 10759-10760.
Mehta A, Chung YY, Ng A, Iskandar F, Atan S, Wei H, Dusting G, Sun W, Wong P and Shim W (2011), Pharmacological response of human cardiomyocytes derived from virus-free induced pluripotent stem cells, Cardiovascular Research., September, 2011. Vol. 91(4), pp. 577-586.
Zhang H, Zou B, Yu H, Moretti A, Wang X, Yan W, Babcock JJ, Bellin M, McManus OB, Tomaselli G, Nan F, Laugwitz K-L and Li M (2012), Modulation of hERG potassium channel gating normalizes action potential duration prolonged by dysfunctional KCNQ1 potassium channel, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences., July, 2012. Vol. 109(29), pp. 11866-11871.

References

  1. Ludwig TE et al. (2006) Feeder-independent culture of human embryonic stem cells. Nat Methods 3(8): 637–46.
  2. Ludwig TE et al. (2006) Derivation of human embryonic stem cells in defined conditions. Nat Biotechnol 24(2): 185–7.
  3. Chen G et al. (2011) Chemically defined conditions for human iPSC derivation and culture. Nat Methods 8(5): 424–9.