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Last week, the first “Cell Agriculture Innovation Day” at Tufts University was held in Boston, where industry leaders, researchers, and experts in cell agriculture gathered to discuss the current situation of the industry and how to elevate cell culture products to higher levels. On the “Cell Agriculture Innovation Day”, industry experts reviewed the progress made in cell culture meat and other products over the past decade and shared their views on the industry’s development momentum in the coming years.Isha Datar, executive director of the non-profit research organization New Harvest, emphasized in a group discussion on “Cell Agriculture Innovation Day” that ten years ago, people who engaged in cell agriculture could be counted with one hand; Nowadays, 150 new startups have emerged in the industry, with an increasing number of academic talents and sizable investments. The “party” of cellular agriculture has already begun.Through the sharing and interpretation of industry leaders and experts in the field of cellular agriculture, there are five key points for the innovative development of cellular agriculture:2.jpgCollaborate to solve key issuesAccording to Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer of Mosa Meats, in a group discussion, there are many research and development barriers that need to be addressed in cellular agriculture in the coming years, particularly in terms of cost-effectiveness (especially resource efficiency) of its manufacturing processes.The biggest cost factor for cell culture meat products today is cell culture media, a nutrient rich material used to support cell growth.According to Andrew Stout, a doctoral student at Tufts University who focuses on cultivating cell lines and media, the field of cell agriculture has achieved success in reducing the cost of certain media components, such as growth factors. These ingredients are currently readily available fruits in the process of improving cell culture media.Looking ahead, researchers in this field may gradually solve other challenging problems, such as amino acids and vitamins.3.jpgCollaborate to solve key issuesIsha Datar, Executive Director of New Harvest, predicts that industry participants in cellular agriculture will increasingly collaborate to find answers to problems.In recent years, many news in the industry has been related to individual companies and their products, but in the next decade, Isha Datar believes that it will hear and see more different companies and other participants working together to solve problems. Especially, companies collaborate to address the challenge of expanding large-scale production using shared facilities.In 2021, Swiss spice manufacturer Chihuarton and other partners launched the “Cell Culture Food Innovation Center” in Europe, creating a shared equipment infrastructure for startups, allowing more participants to innovate in cell agriculture at lower costs.4.jpgEnsure public fundingBruce Friedrich, President and Co founder of the Good Food Institute, predicts that public funds will play an increasingly important role in helping the industry address cost and scale challenges. In the past three years, the funding of governments around the world has increased from almost zero to hundreds of millions of dollars.The vision and willingness of intergovernmental funding for cellular agriculture can be compared to its investment in renewable energy and electric vehicles.In the United States, both parties may jointly support funding to support cellular agriculture, and it is reported that the Good Food Institute is working to communicate with Republican lawmakers on the potential employment opportunities and economic benefits of cellular agriculture.5.jpgIntroduce cellular agricultural products to the publicThe speaker at the “Cell Agriculture Innovation Day” at Tufts University also discussed the necessity of continuing to improve cell culture meat products before introducing them to consumers.For Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer of Mosa Meats, one step in improving the quality of cell culture meat products may be to improve the differentiation of muscle and adipose tissue.Andrew Stout, a doctoral student at Tufts University, stated that the academic community can identify cell lines that can produce delicious final products by identifying genetic characteristics, thereby helping to improve the product quality of cell cultured meat.David Block, professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Davis, pointed out that another task of the academic community is to ensure that cell culture meat products are nutritionally equivalent to traditional meat products. Compared to traditional agriculture, cell agriculture also has the opportunity to exercise more control over the nutritional quality and safety of its products, as cell culture products grow in a controlled environment.6.jpgMoving towards semi industrializationAccording to industry insiders on the “Cell Agriculture Innovation Day”, cell agriculture, including cell culture meat, has begun to obtain the first batch of regulatory approvals and is about to obtain regulatory approvals in many regions.Last November, UPS IDE Foods became the first company to receive a “no doubt” letter from the US Food and Drug Administration, indicating that the FDA has determined that its cell culture chicken is safe for consumers.7.jpgWhen the Singapore Food Authority opened the regulatory green light for cell culture chicken in 2020, All Foods became the first company in the world to obtain regulatory approval for cell culture meat.With the progress of regulatory approval and the construction of new factories, cellular agriculture has indeed reached a certain level of semi industrialization.Uma Valeti, CEO of UPS Foods, stated that it may take another 10 to 30 years for cell culture meat to take off.According to Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer of Mosa Meats, it will take a long time for cell culture meat to become an important component of the market before it can ultimately have an impact on the environment, which is the root cause of all of this, including cell agriculture.
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