About FCS free database

Fetal Calf Serum (FCS, also known as Fetal Bovine Serum, or FBS) is a common supplement of animal cell culture media. However, FCS is harvested, with a high chance of suffering, from bovine foetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. Furthermore, since it is a natural product, the composition of the commercially available FCS varies from batch to batch, which impedes the reproducibility of results. These moral and scientific concerns demonstrate the urgency to switch to an FCS-free medium. The FCS-free Database provides an overview of the range of commercially available serum-free media for cell-culture, as well as medium compositions obtained from scientific literature. Additionally, the forum function allows researchers to discuss on the applicability of each product.

The FCS-free Database is part of the 3Rs Database Programme, together with www.humane-endpoints.info, and www.interspeciesinfo.com. These websites provide information that enables researchers to refine and reduce animal experiments, respectively.