Different Brands of Media - (Sep/22/2008 )
We used to use Hyclone and Gibco minimum essential media alpha. Since Caission Labs has it much cheaper we decided to switch to caission. Though we didn't think of it at the time, a lot of things at our lab as either stopped working or wasn't working like it was supposed to. We blamed it on possible Mycoplasma infection. We tested it, and as it turns out, the cells are mycoplasma free. So now we are thinking there is something wrong with Caisson Lab's media. Their 1L bottle of MEMa only costs 8$. Gibco and Hyclone is about 3X the price. I"m thinking they are skimping and Quality Control and on base materials and using inferior quality amino acids etc. Has anyone had problems with Caisson Labs or any other breands of media???
Always used Gibco or Hyclone media. No idea about other brands. I think sigma is also fine.
So anyone even heard of Caisson Labs?? This kind of worries me if no one has even heard of them
Hi rubyeye,
No, I've never heard of Caisson Labs and no one else that I have spoken to in my lab has heard of them either.
Its fortunate (or unfortunate depending on the quality of the media) that you mentioned them, because I was looking for media with D-valine substituted for L-valine, and after reading your post, I decided to look up Caisson Labs.
Lo and behold, Caisson Labs was offering the media that I was looking for and the price was dirt cheap (which makes me a bit suspicious). I'm not sure if I will order it, but if I do, I will let you know if I have problems with it!
Thanks for the heads up on this company!
If you are trying products to which you are not familiar... why not ask for free samlpes???
finally, if they work as you expected you will by them.
Seba
(the free samples best friend) 
No, I've never heard of Caisson Labs and no one else that I have spoken to in my lab has heard of them either.
Its fortunate (or unfortunate depending on the quality of the media) that you mentioned them, because I was looking for media with D-valine substituted for L-valine, and after reading your post, I decided to look up Caisson Labs.
Lo and behold, Caisson Labs was offering the media that I was looking for and the price was dirt cheap (which makes me a bit suspicious). I'm not sure if I will order it, but if I do, I will let you know if I have problems with it!
We just switched to gibco and hyclone powdered media and we're filter sterilizing our own media now. One major thing I noticed is that the cells look A LOT healthier and grow faster! even in serum free media. Despite Caisson labs claiming that their media is identical to Hyclone or Gibco... there has got to be something fundamentally different!
If you are wanting a media with a different formulation I think you should mix the D-valine yourself into media lacking valine and then filter sterilize it... I swear the headache and the time wasted trying to figure out what was wrong with our cells was not worth the low cost of their media. We used a bottle filter with a vacuum attachment the memberane was aPES I think.