Mind the (protein) gap: applying new knowledge to improve muscle and fat cell differentiation for cultivated meat

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As the global demand for high quality protein grows, more sustainable sources need to be identified. Cultivated meat is an exciting solution that has potential to revolutionise the way that meat is produced. It focuses on developing meat without a need for conventional agriculture and animal sacrifice and has potential to have a positive impact on the environment and to improve biodiversity. Across the globe, cultivated meat and the associated technology-driven companies are emerging as this sector matures and increasingly provides a compelling opportunity.Roslin Technologies (RT) is a Scottish biotech company bringing a suite of revolutionary animal cell products to the global cultivated meat sector. These products include induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) that have infinite self-renewal properties and, at laboratory scale, are capable of directed differentiation to the key cell types needed for cultivated meat generation (muscle/fat). RT's pig iPSC lines are already being used by cultivated meat companies across the world to develop prototypes. RT is currently expanding its species platform by deriving cell lines from cattle and sheep for cultivated meat development.RT now needs to develop innovative technologies to enable its customers to generate muscle and fat cell types at scale. The vision here is to move RT's offering to this next stage by selecting cell lines and developing new protocols to support efficient cell differentiation at an industry-relevant scale. Here, RT will work closely with scientists at Roslin Institute (RI), who will bring extensive expertise/capabilities in livestock stem cell biology and characterisation to develop robust protocols for efficient generation of muscle and fat ingredients for cultivated beef. This team will work with the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre's equipment facility FlexBio (Heriot-Watt University) to de-risk scale-up of the downstream industrial biotechnology processes as applied to the cell lines and protocols derived in this project.The project builds on previous advances made by RT in generating proprietary animal stem cells for the cultivated meat sector and will combine these with deep scientific expertise available at RI and FlexBio to enable RT to build its commercial package for its customers by providing end-to-end materials/protocols that will enable them to generate muscle and fat at scale for cultivated meat production. This project will help accelerate the global sector to commercial reality by applying deep knowledge garnered on bona-fide bovine muscle and fat progenitor cells to support differentiation of animal stem cells that have infinite self-renewing capacity.