SBIR Phase I: Development of a novel technology to manufacture animal-free muscle proteins in bacteria and yeasts

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业影响包括改善食品安全、环境效益和人类健康效益。该项目将开发一种更接近于动物肉的味道和质地的肉类替代品。拟议项目开发的技术将用于建立一个垂直整合的食品制造平台，该平台能够承受自然灾害和流行病造成的供应链中断。这些肉类替代品将减少和取代传统的肉类消费，并带来许多环境效益--减少温室气体排放和水污染；减少能源、水和土地的使用；减少抗生素的使用。减少肉类消费对人类健康有好处。此外，生产成本最终将与蘑菇养殖相当。拟议的项目旨在通过重组蛋白质技术开发一种基于发酵的肉类替代品，更接近动物粉的味道和质地。此外，该项目旨在利用蘑菇菌丝体的质地和味道，并用重组肌肉蛋白补充，以进一步提高口感和营养成分，并克服现有植物性肉类产品的许多缺点。到目前为止，将重组肌肉蛋白和单细胞蛋白相结合的概念是新的，尚未见报道。在成本和消费者体验方面，植物性肉类和实验室培育的肉类之间仍然存在着巨大的差距。植物性肉类更实惠，但由于质地和营养状况不佳而面临消费者的抵制，而栽培肉类提供了与动物肉类相似的消费者体验，但成本要高得多。为了实现这一目标，肌肉蛋白基因将在微生物宿主中表达，并与植物蛋白进行酶交联，以产生可用于合成肉类的蛋白质纤维。技术目标还包括证明将从肉类中提取的肌肉纤维蛋白与从蘑菇中提取的真菌蛋白进行交联以产生所需的质地和风味特性的可行性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project includes improved food security, environmental benefits, and human health benefits. This project will develop a meat alternative that more closely mimics the taste and texture of animal meat. The technology developed from the proposed project will be used to build a vertically integrated food manufacturing platform that can withstand supply chain disruptions from natural disasters and pandemics. These meat alternatives will reduce and replace traditional meat consumption, with many environmental benefits - lowered greenhouse gas emissions and aquatic pollution; lower use of energy, water and land; and reduced antibiotics usage. There are benefits to human health for reduced meat consumption. Furthermore, production costs will be eventually be comparable to that of mushroom farming.The proposed project aims to develop a fermentation-based meat alternative that more closely mimics the taste and texture of animal meal through recombinant protein technologies. Additionally, the project aims to leverage the texture and flavor of mushroom mycelia, and supplement this with recombinant muscle proteins to further enhance the taste and nutritional profiles and overcome many of the shortcomings of existing plant-based meat products. To date the concept of combining recombinant muscle protein and single cell protein is novel and has not been reported. Large gaps persist between plant-based and lab-grown meat, with regards to cost and consumer experience. Plant-based meat is more affordable but faces consumer resistance due to sub-optimal texture and nutritional profiles, while cultivated meat offers a consumer experience similar to that of animal meat but at a much higher cost. Towards this goal, muscle protein genes will be expressed in a microbial host and enzymatically cross-linked with vegetable protein to produce protein fibers that can be formulated into synthetic meat. The technical objectives also include demonstration the feasibility of crosslinking muscle fiber proteins extracted from meat with mycoprotein from mushroom to produce desired textural and flavor properties.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.