OrganoVIR Labs Achieves Exciting Milestone: 

FCS-Free Transition with Panexin CD

OrganoVIR Labs has taken a groundbreaking step in creating more animal-friendly research practices. As of April 1, 2025, we have successfully transitioned away from using Fetal Calf Serum (FCS) in our virus cultures, replacing it with Panexin CD (Chemically Defined), a fully animal-free serum alternative. Today, almost all of the culture media used at OrganoVIR Labs are FCS-free.

What Is Fetal Calf Serum (FCS)?

FCS, also known as Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), is a widely used supplement in cell culture media. It is derived from the blood of cow fetuses and has historically been a key growth supplement in in vitro cell culture. For many years, researchers in academia, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology have relied on FCS for applications such as stem-cell research, in vitro fertilization, and animal diagnostics.

 

While FCS offers certain advantages for cell culture, its use comes with significant ethical and scientific drawbacks. Aside from being harvested from calf fetuses, the serum can carry pathogens or microorganisms (like bacteria or viruses). Moreover, FCS-based research often face issues concerning reproducibility and translatability.

A New Era of Animal-Free Science

Thanks to new initiatives, including the FDA’s initiative to reduce animal testing requirements, and the NIH’s incentive to reduce animal use in research while expanding innovative, human-based science, we can now enter an exciting transition into an animal-friendly future for laboratories.

 

In the past 20 years, over 900 FCS-free culture media have been developed, with more than 400 being entirely free of animal-derived components.

OrganoVIR Labs’ Transition to Panexin CD

At OrganoVIR Labs, we’ve embraced this transformation by replacing FCS with Panexin CD, a cutting-edge, animal-free serum. Currently, 80% of the culture media used at OrganoVIR Labs are FCS-free. Importantly, our laboratory is part of an ISO certified diagnostic medical microbiological laboratory, showing that transition towards animal-free products can be done within diagnostic laboratories.

 

 

“In our lab, only one cell line still requires FCS, but we’ve successfully reduced the amount of FCS in its medium,” said Katja Wolthers, co-head of OrganoVIR Labs. “Additionally, we’ve replaced trypsin and blocking buffers, traditionally derived from animals, with animal-friendly alternatives. A transition towards animal-free science is possible, also in diagnostics.”

Pioneering Ethical and Sustainable Research

OrganoVIR Labs is committed to driving innovation while prioritizing ethics and sustainability in research. Our transition to FCS-free practices marks an important step towards a future of animal-friendly science.

 

For more updates on our journey and progress, stay tuned to OrganoVIR Labs’ news.

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