How do you grow stem cells with a “culture media” or cell food and what is it?

Question: How do you grow stem cells with a “culture media” or cell food and what is it?
- Keywords:
  cell culture,
  stem cell
Asked by anon-256630 to Vanessa on 19 Jun 2020.
- Vanessa Ward answered on 19 Jun 2020:
  
  Hi Claudia,
  
  Thank you for your question. Culture media is a liquid containing all the nutrients the cells need to grow. There are many different types of culture media, each with different ingredients, as different cells need different growth factors and nutrients to support their optimum growth.
  
  The stem cells I work with grow on a special coating and attach themselves to the surface of the plate. To feed them I remove 95% of the liquid media and then add fresh media (about 2 ml/well). Some cells need this every day (including weekends!), others only every 3-4 days. Usually the “used” media is just discarded, but sometimes it is kept for analysis as it contains lots of proteins and other biological factors that the cells produce, so can tell us a lot about their behaviour.

Question: How do you grow stem cells with a “culture media” or cell food and what is it?