ImMedia by Invitrogen is an easy-to-prepare bacterial growth medium that comes in liquid broth form and with agar for preparation of agar plates. Antibiotics are already added to the mixtures (Ampicillin, 100 ug/ml; Kanamycin, 50 ug/ml; Zeocin, 25 ug/ml) and all, except Zeocin, can also be purchased with IPTG (100 ug/ml) and X-gal (100 ug/ml). ImMedia comes in handy sachets which make either 200 ml of liquid broth or 10 agar plates.
The process of preparing the media is incredibly simple. The contents of one sachet are emptied into a clean flask or bottle, 200 ml of water is added and the solution is microwaved for approximately 2.5 min (depending on the microwave). Liquid media is ready to use once it is cooled below 37C and agar media may be poured immediately into 10 petri dishes and allowed to solidify. Compared to preparing bacterial growth media, ImMedia is much more convenient as everything is pre-weighed with no need to autoclave and antibiotics are already included.
For labs without access to a core facility, ImMedia provides a quick solution for preparing bacterial growth media or bacterial agar dishes. Obviously, labs that are using high volumes of bacterial media may want to find another solution. ImMedia also has the advantage of a longer shelf life (ImMedia sachets have a shelf life of 6 months) when compared to pre-prepared agar plates which have a very limited shelf-life. We found no significant difference between growth media/plates prepared with ImMedia and those prepared in the traditional fashion.
Our lab does not use high volumes of liquid bacterial growth media or agar plates, nor do we have access to a core facility. Prior to using ImMedia, we had been using pre-prepared media and agar plates (Teknovo), but we turned to ImMedia to prevent the waste of plates that had passed their shelf life from inactivity. In conclusion, for labs with a low to medium usage rate of bacterial growth media, ImMedia presents an easy and fast solution.
Boyd Scott
Senior Research Scientist
Cell and Molecular Biology
Discovery Biology
Vitae Pharmaceuticals