Protein Hydrolysates Applications｜Advanced Protein Hydrolysates / Cell-Culture Grade Nitrogen Sources

Microfiltered Hydrolysates

• Suitable for general mammalian cells, insect cells, yeast, and bacterial fermentation.
• Ideal as core nitrogen sources for seed trains, early-stage expansion, and industrial-scale fermentation.
• Excellent cost–performance ratio and balanced nutrient profile; ideal for mid- to large-scale production.

Typical sources: Casein hydrolysates, plant protein hydrolysates (soy/wheat), yeast hydrolysates.

Ultrafiltered Hydrolysates（UF）

• Processed through ultrafiltration to remove large molecules and impurities, providing a more defined peptide molecular-weight distribution.
• Low endotoxin, low ash—ideal for sensitive cell lines and biopharmaceutical applications.
• Especially suited for CHO, HEK, Vero, iPSC, MSC, and other high-value cell lines.

Typical sources: Soy, wheat, pea, rice, and yeast-based UF hydrolysates.

1. Mammalian Cell Culture

Applicable Cell Lines: CHO, HEK 293, Vero, MDCK, Hybridoma, MRC-5, BHK, PER.C6, etc.

Protein Hydrolysates are among the most important non-serum nitrogen supplements in mammalian cell culture. They help maintain excellent cell activity and productivity under both low-serum and serum-free conditions.

Key Benefits:

• Increases growth rate and maximum viable cell density (VCD).
• Improves cell viability and culture stability throughout the process.
• Enhances antibody and recombinant protein productivity.
• Supports high-density, perfusion, and continuous culture systems.

Typical Applications: Monoclonal antibody (MAB) production, recombinant proteins (rProtein), protein therapeutics, viral vector production.

2. Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine

Applicable Cell Types: iPSC, MSC, ASC, NSC, stem-cell–derived cells, immune cells (T cells, NK cells), etc.

The small peptides and amino acids in hydrolysates help mimic a natural microenvironment, providing gentle and stable nutritional support to maintain pluripotency and improve expansion efficiency.

Main Functions:

• Enhances stem-cell viability and adhesion.
• Maintains stem-cell characteristics under reduced-serum or serum-free conditions.
• Supports regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and exosome development.

3. Insect Cell Culture

Applicable Cell Lines: SF9, SF21, High Five (Tni), etc.

Insect cells are highly sensitive to nitrogen-source quality. High-quality plant and yeast hydrolysates significantly enhance protein and virus productivity in baculovirus systems.

Application Advantages:

• Improves infection efficiency and virus titer.
• Enhances cell health and culture stability.
• Boosts recombinant protein yields—ideal for vaccine and subunit protein production.

4. Recombinant Protein Expression（rProtein）

Whether using CHO, HEK, or insect cells, Protein Hydrolysates act as a “productivity amplifier” in upstream bioprocessing.

Key Advantages:

• Accelerates high-density seed-train establishment.
• Improves specific productivity (Qp).
• Stabilizes protein quality and glycosylation profiles, reducing batch variability.

Typical Applications: Cytokines, growth factors, enzymes, fusion proteins, and various recombinant biotherapeutics.

5. Monoclonal Antibody (MAB) Production

For CHO or Hybridoma-based monoclonal antibody production, hydrolysates are critical supplements to enhance yield and reduce cost.

Application Highlights:

• Supports high-density batch, fed-batch, and perfusion processes.
• Increases mAb productivity and helps maintain key quality attributes (CQA).
• Enables gradual serum reduction and formulation optimization for commercial-scale production.

6. Vaccines & Viral Production

Applicable Systems: Vero, MDCK, CHO, HEK, insect cells, etc., for virus amplification and antigen production.

High-quality hydrolysates provide stable and sufficient nitrogen sources for host cells, improving virus production and culture robustness.

• Increases virus titer and production efficiency.
• Improves cell stability during multi-round infection and long-term culture.
• Supports traditional and next-generation vaccines (e.g., recombinant proteins, VLPs).

7. Gene Therapy & Viral Vectors

Applicable Vectors: AAV, Lentivirus, Retrovirus, Adenovirus, HSV, etc.

In suspension HEK293 and similar systems, Protein Hydrolysates improve cell health and infection responsiveness, resulting in higher viral-vector titers and better product consistency.

• Improves transfection efficiency and viral-vector yield.
• Reduces cell death and debris, improving downstream purification.
• Suitable for research, preclinical development, and scalable toward GMP production.

8. Cultivated Meat & Cellular Agriculture

Applicable Cells: Myoblasts, skeletal muscle cells, fibroblasts, adipocytes, satellite cells, etc.

The Food-grade Protein Hydrolysates from STBIO MEDIA are ideal for cultivated meat and cellular agriculture, delivering both high cell-culture performance and food-safety compliance.

Core Advantages:

• Significantly reduces the use of FBS and costly serum components.
• Enhances proliferation and differentiation efficiency.
• Uses Food-grade, Non-GMO, Halal-certified raw materials—optimized for future regulatory approval.

9. Cultivated Seafood

Applicable Cells: Fish muscle & fat cells, crustacean cells, mollusk cells, etc.

Plant- and yeast-derived hydrolysates provide nutrient environments closer to in-vivo marine conditions, helping establish stable long-term culture systems.

• Improves cell adhesion and growth performance.
• Enhances viability and differentiation efficiency.
• Supports the development of species-specific serum-replacement formulations.