Minimum Essential Medium Eagle With Earle's Salts and 2,0 g/L sodium bicarbonate Without L-glutamine, L-cysteine, L-cystine, and L-methionine is generally used to grow attached cell lines, such as fibroblasts, in the presence of FBS, calf or horse sera.

• Commonly used as deficient media for metabolic labelling procedures
• Originally prepared by Harry Eagle and is one of the most popular cell culture media
• All formulations are optimised for use with S-35 labeling reagents, including MP's TRANS35S-Label
• Used to support the growth of cells in monolayers, in suspension and other cell types with proper supplementation

The formulation differs from the original in that the concentrations of some of the vitamins have been increased slightly; in some, the amino acids differ by decimal amounts. In some formulation, the MgSO₄ concentration differs from that of Eagle but agrees with that quoted by Parker (Parker quotes 200 mg/liter MgSO₄.7H₂O).

Nutritional needs of normal mammalian fibroblasts and certain HeLa cell subtypes could not be met by Eagle’s earlier medium Basal Medium Eagle (BME). This led to the development of MEM incorporating specific modifications such as higher amino acid concentrations for the cultivation of fastidious cells.