Dr. Claire Bomkamp, Selina Zheng, Andrew Stout, Lejjy Gafour, Lexi Duscher, Stephanie Kawecki, RealSense, Dr. Jovana Grahovac, Dr. Julian McClements, Arjun Iyer
The Knowledge Society (TKS) is a World Economic Forum-backed community of the world's most ambitious young people who want to make an impact using emerging technologies and sciences. GFI is partnering with TKS to develop an introductory course, primarily in the form of video modules, on the basics of cultivated meat science.
This course will serve as an intro-level resource for those new to the field. The primary audience is high school students, though we anticipate that both younger students
Cultivated meat is the process of growing real meat from animal cells. In this video, you'll meet some of the researchers working on making cultivated meat a reality.
Meat contains a variety of cell types, most prominently muscle and fat. Starter cells for cultivated meat may include embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, precursor cells, or immortalized precursors. Each of these cell types comes with particular advantages and disadvantages.
Genetic modification is the insertion of foreign DNA into an organism, or editing of the organism's own DNA. Genetic modification is not an essential part of the cultivated meat production process, but it might be useful for introducing desired properties into cultivated meat. If genetic modification is used, it will be important to take safety into account and to balance these advantages with risks related to both public perception and regulatory hurdles.
Culture media provides all the components cells need to grow and proliferate. The basal media provides the essential nutrients and this is usually supplemented with other additives containing growth factors. Currently, supplements include animal derived sera such as fetal bovine serum (FBS). It is expensive and derived from animals, and therefore not a good fit for use in producing cultivated meat for human consumption.
Optimization is complicated because of the number of factors involved and the large number of possible combinations, but there are strategies for dealing with this!
Scaffolding is necessary to mimic the ECM and give cells something to grow on. Current scaffolding materials include decellularized plant tissue, chitin, recombinant collagen, textured soy protein, mycellium, nanocellulose sponges and nanomaterials. Techniques to produce them include immersion jet spinning and electrospinning.
Stirred tank reactors for cultivated meat production
Recorded lecture
Dr. Jovana Grahovac
Bioreactors provide the environment necessary to stimulate cell proliferation and differentiation. A successful bioreactor design will allow for the maintenance of stable temperature, pH, nutrient and oxygen levels, and other variables relevant for cellular health. Bioreactor designs typically also incorporate a number of sensors that allow the operator to monitor the conditions inside the reactor.
The RealSense project aims to develop better bioreactor sensors using a scale-down approach. This allows the team to do a lot of experiments without using a lot of cells or a lot of culture medium!
Muscle fibers are organized in a hierarchical structure, with three connective tissue layers of increasing stiffness. Muscle tissue also contains vasculature, nerve endings, fibroblasts, and adipocytes.
Milk is a complex mixture of casein and whey proteins, fat globules, salts, sugars, minerals, micronutrients, and water. Its biochemical properties influence its properties, such as the ability to thicken and become yogurt-like when bacterial cultures are added. These properties can be mimicked using plants, using proteins produced using acellular agriculture, or using a combination of the two.
Andrew Stout, Dr. Julian McClements, Lexi Duscher, Arjun Iyer
Cellular agriculture is a growing field and it needs a lot of people with a diverse set of skills and talents to help it succeed! If you're passionate about the future of food, there are many ways for you to contribute to the goal of building a better food system. This video features several of the scientists you heard from in previous modules discussing how they got to where they are today and also provides some practical tips on how to get started in your own career.