Funding award for cultivated meat scale up

In the first seven months of 2021, there has already been more investment in the cultivated meat industry than there was across the entirety of 2020. Large companies such as Nestlé are starting to see the opportunities that cultivated meat can offer – and Roslin Technologies’ recent funding award from the IBioIC will help to drive research in the area forward.

Currently, most research in the industry is done in-house by consumer goods firms. This means they are limited both on which types of cell lines they use, and by their in-house expertise in how to scale up cells proficiently. At Roslin Tech, we are aiming to move the research focus from its current early-stage into the medium- and longer-term focus of how to produce these cells on a larger scale and reach price parity with traditional meat faster.

We are pleased to be working with Dr Leo Rios-Solos of the University of Edinburgh on the project, looking at the scale up of our novel induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines for cultivated meat production. The 1-year project focuses on bioprocess engineering to find sustainable ways to scale up iPS cells in a fast and affordable way. It will offer real insight into how to close the scale-up gap which currently hinders cost-effective production of cultivated meat products.

The project has two main focuses: media formulation and optimised scale-up. We aim to find the optimum growth media at lowest cost, ensuring that it does not impact growth of the cells. The ability to continually make minor changes in the cellular growth media allows for faster assessment and leads directly into optimising scale up. Creating the optimum conditions on a small laboratory scale is very different compared to meeting these requirements in larger bioreactors. In this project we are assessing scale up in bioreactors up to 5L to mimic the greater outputs required for industrial-level production.

For the cultivated meat industry to grow, research like this is vital. We are pleased to be working at the forefront of research in such a new and fast-growing industry. We will be updating on the outcomes of our joint project as it moves forward. More information on our iPS cell lines can be found on our website – www.roslintech.com.