Video 1_Xeno-free production of lentiviral particles: implementing hPL as FBS replacement in cell culture.mp4

To produce viral particles safely, several plasmid constructs are delivered to human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293-T), which use the cellular machinery to package and assemble non-replicative lentiviruses with high efficiency.

However, the cell culture of HEK293-T cells still largely relies on the use of fetal bovine serum for cell survival and proliferation. At large scale, this cell culture practice consumes a great amount of animal-derived serum, driving the need for continuous farming of animals whose fetuses would be used to obtain serum, posing grave ethical and practical concerns for human-relevant research. In this study, we present a feasible and scalable method to adapt the culture medium formulation for HEK293-T cells and demonstrate how virus production responds to this cell culture adaptation.