Laying the Scientific and Engineering Foundation for Sustainable Cultivated Meat Production

人造肉可以成为可持续粮食系统的基石。它涉及从动物细胞中生长动物蛋白质，脂肪和结缔组织。 目标是为培育肉类产业建立科学和工程基础。 该项目将解决一些关键的瓶颈和知识差距。 一个是指导干细胞可靠地分化成特定的细胞类型（例如，肌肉、脂肪、软骨）。另一个是为这些细胞开发一种不含动物产品的生长培养基。第三个是开发材料和工艺，以允许创建一个三维组织支架供细胞生长。最后一个是一个有代表性的培养肉过程的技术和经济分析的发展。本项目将培养研究生、博士后和本科生。它还将开发和提供一个关于养殖肉类科学和技术的年度推广/继续教育课程。为了建立这一科学和工程基础，该项目侧重于四个具体目标：1）开发用于干细胞扩增和分化为肌肉和脂肪的有效策略，其维持细胞系稳定性并支持可扩展性，2）建立在廉价的、基于植物的、无血清培养基中生长和分化细胞系的方法，直至中试规模，3）产生允许产生三维组织结构的生物材料和方法，4）完成养殖肉类生产的技术经济分析（TEA）和生命周期分析（LCA）。预计这些进展将广泛地促进用于再生医学的干细胞工程、用于器官替代的生物材料和组织工程、用于生物治疗剂生产的大规模哺乳动物细胞培养、用于食品和生物制药生产的植物细胞培养过程，以及发酵的技术经济和生命周期分析-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Cultivated meat could be a cornerstone of a sustainable food system. It involves growing animal protein, fat, and connective tissue from animal cells. The goal is to establish the scientific and engineering foundation for the cultivated meat industry. There are critical bottlenecks and knowledge gaps that this project will address. One is directing stem cells to reliably differentiate into specific cell types (e.g., muscle, fat, cartilage). Another is developing a growth medium for these cells that does not contain animal products. A third is to develop material and processes to allow for the creation of a 3-dimensional tissue scaffold for the cells to grow in. A final one is the development of a technical and economic analysis of a representative cultured meat process. This project will train graduate students, post-docs, and undergraduates. It will also develop and deliver an annual extension/continuing education course on cultivated meat science and technology.In order to establish this scientific and engineering foundation, the project is focused 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 creation of three-dimensional tissue structure, and 4) complete a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) for cultivated meat production. It is anticipated that these advancements will contribute 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.