Minimum Essential Medium (MEM) is a commonly used cell culture medium. MEM can be used to culture a variety of suspended and adherent mammalian cells, including HeLa, BHK-21, 293, HEP-2, HT-1080, MCF-7, fibroblasts, and primary rat astrocytes wait. Gibco™ MEM Modified Medium is available in a variety of components for a wide range of cell culture applications. Use Medium Selection Tool Find the right recipe.
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Gibco™ MEM was developed by Harry Eagle based on his earlier Basic Eagle Medium (BME) formulation. Many other modifications of MEM have since been made, including Glasgow's MEM, MEM alpha, DMEM, and Temin's modified medium. MEM contains Earle's Balanced Salts for CO2 incubators, or Hanks' Balanced Salts for CO2-free incubators. This product is made from Earle's Balanced Salt.

cGMP Production and Quality System
To ensure the stability of the supply chain, Gibco™ MEM is produced simultaneously in two independent factories in Grand Island, New York and Scotland, United Kingdom. Both factories comply with cGMP production requirements, are ISO 13485 certified, and are FDA-registered medical device manufacturers.

MEM does not contain proteins, lipids or growth factors. Therefore, MEM needs to be supplemented with nutrients, usually 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS). MEM uses a sodium bicarbonate buffer system (2.2 g/L) and therefore requires a 5–10% CO₂ environment to maintain physiological pH. Gibco™ cell culture media in powder form requires supplementing sodium bicarbonate, adjusting pH, and filtering (see Experimental protocol).