GCR: Laying the Scientific and Engineering Foundation for Sustainable Cultivated Meat Production

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This proposal is focused on convergent research that encompasses the science, engineering, economics, sustainability, and consumer acceptance of cultivated meat production. Cultivated meat production is the process of growing animal muscle, fat, and connective tissue cells, such as beef, chicken, pork, turkey or fish, in large-scale fermentors to produce a protein-rich meat product. It addresses the compelling and immediate societal problem of finding new potential routes toward feeding a rapidly growing global population with a nutritious and satisfying diet, while protecting our environment and limited resources. It requires the deep integration of disciplines including stem cell engineering, tissue culture, animal and meat science, experimental process optimization and artificial intelligence, biochemical engineering, industrial fermentation and manufacturing, food science and engineering, materials science and biomaterials, sensory science, techno-economic modeling, life cycle analysis, and consumer science. The project goal is to establish the scientific and engineering foundation for the nascent cultivated meat industry, address critical scientific and engineering bottlenecks and knowledge gaps that inhibit commercialization, and train the scientists and engineers that will build the industry. Doing so will develop knowledge necessary for the creation of new sustainable protein sources and has the potential to support the growth of a new industry.In order to establish this scientific and engineering foundation, the proposed convergent research will focus on four specific aims: 1) develop an efficient strategy for stem cell amplification and differentiation to muscle and fat that maintains cell line stability and supports scalability, 2) establish a process for growing and differentiating cell lines in inexpensive, plant-based, serum-free medium up to pilot scale, 3) create biomaterials and processes that allow the creation of three-dimensional tissue structure, and 4) complete a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) for cultivated meat production. These advances will not only impact the cultivated meat industry, but will also contribute more broadly to stem cell engineering for regenerative medicine, biomaterials and tissue engineering for organ replacement, large-scale mammalian cell culture for biotherapeutics production, plant cell culture processes for food and biopharmaceutical production, and techno-economic and life cycle analyses of fermentation-based bioprocesses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.