Cell culture has evolved over more than a century into a core technique that is central to a diverse range of research and clinical applications. These range from the study of basic biological processes through to stem cell therapy and tissue engineering. As well as contributing to ethical progress by helping to reduce the use of animals, cell culture provides a number of key scientific benefits. Patrick Jackson at Vindon Scientific and Dr Carol Barker at XCellR8 provide an insight into how in pharmaceutical research and development, cell culture has an increasing number of cutting-edge roles, including a contribution to reduced attrition rates by allowing sophisticated early-stage safety and efficacy screening.