Media formulation optimization: current and future opportunities

[Display omitted] •Chemically defined cell culture media is complex mixture of many ingredients.•Media optimization is complex and time-consuming iterative process.•This review provides strategy for media optimization and future opportunity. Chemically defined cell culture media is a complex mixture of molecules used for cellular metabolism and growth. Decisions surrounding which molecules to include in a formulation and their optimal concentration is a major endeavor in biomanufacturing. Cellular metabolic complexity and stringent quality requirements that vary across cell lines require time-consuming, iterative experimentation to optimize media formulation. Exacerbating this is the orders-of-magnitude concentration differences among media components making media characterization difficult. This review describes the challenges, advances and strategies currently used to optimize media formulations as well as future opportunities for improvement.