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Researcher seeks pure cell growth medium by Dick Peterson Public Relations  For some reason, a number of cells grow better in fetal bovine serum—a fact that makes fetal bovine serum a staple in laboratories around the world.   It works, it’s an excellent cell-growth medium, but the scientists who use it don’t know why —or how.    “It’s a mystery,” said Philippe Arnaud, M.D., Ph.D., and he finds that worrisome. He notes also that the companies producing the serum offer about 20 different variations, and the serum has the potential to bring with it hazardous viruses and mycoplasma.   For a couple years now Arnaud, in MUSC’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, has worked with the main component of the serum, a fetal protein called fetuin, that can be a synthetically engineered replacement. He inserts the fetuin gene in the genetic material of a virus that grows in insects. As the virus grows, it produces fetuin, which can be easily extracted and purified without altering the protein.   Isolating the main component of the serum and genetically engineering it as a synthetic replacement for fetal bovine serum is a big step, big enough for The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation to include Arnaud among its five grant recipients seeking to replace animal models in biomedical research.    The $20,000 grant he and co-principal investigator Gary Paddock, Ph.D., also in the Microbiology and Immunology Department, received from the foundation will help fund further research into the why and how of fetuin.    “Preliminary results of recombinant fetuin indicate it can replace fetal bovine serum,” Arnaud said. “My research will seek to increase results and expand the use of fetuin to more cell lines.”   Fetal bovine serum is harvested from hearts of the fetal calves of butchered cows, a reason for The Alternatives Research & Development Foundation to encourage a non-animal source for its production. Because fetal bovine serum production supplies an annual $180 million market, a genetically engineered synthetic replacement of greater purity and more consistent composition could be in great demand once its usefulness is proven.   “This grant will help us grow our knowledge,” Arnaud said.