Lowering the cost of cultivated meat production

The have been leaps in technology used in cellular agriculture (ie, production of meat from cells grown in bioreactors rather than harvested from farm animals) that may make it a more viable option for the food industry. One leap has been made at the Tufts University Centre for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) led by David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Engineering, in which researchers have created beef muscle cells that produce their own growth factors, a step that could cut production costs.

Growth factors bind to receptors on the cell surface and provide a signal for cells to grow and differentiate into mature cells of different types. In this study published in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, researchers modified stem cells to produce their own fibroblast growth factor (FGF), which triggers growth of skeletal muscle cells.

Andre Stout, lead researcher on the project and Director of Science at Tufts Cellular Agriculture Commercialisation Lab, said FGF is not a nutrient, but rather an instruction for cells to behave a certain way. The researchers engineered beef muscle stem cells to produce these growth factors and turn on the signalling pathways themselves.

Until now, growth factors had been added to surrounding liquid or media. Made from recombinant protein and sold by industrial suppliers, growth factors contribute to a majority of the cost of production for cultivated meat. Since the growth factors don’t last long in the cell culture media, they have to be replenished every few days, making them costly.

According to Stout, there is still some optimisation that needs to be done to make the protein industry-ready, such as trying to make the growth of the engineered cells faster.

Strategies to do so may include changing the level and timing of expression of FGF in the cell or altering other cell growth pathways. This strategy does not involve adding foreign genes to the cell, just editing and expressing genes that are already there to see if they can improve growth. This could lead to simpler regulatory approval of the food.

Stout believes this strategy will work for other types of meat, as all muscle cells and many other cells typically rely on FGF to grow. He envisions the approach will be applied to other meats, although there may be variability for the best growth factors to express in different species.

“Work is continuing at TUCCA and elsewhere to improve cultivated meat technology, including exploring ways to reduce the cost of nutrients in the growth media and improving the texture, taste and nutritional content of the meat. Products have already been awarded regulatory approval for consumption in the US and globally, although costs and availability remain limiting. I think advances like this will bring us much closer to seeing affordable cultivated meat in our local supermarkets within the next few years,” Kaplan said.

Image credit: Alonso Nichols