Novel edible cellulose microcarriers for the cultured meat industry

用于培养肉行业的新型食用纤维素微载体

• 批准号: 10048301
• 金额: $ 53.31万
• 依托单位: NATURBEADS LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10048301
• 关键词: Novel; edible; cellulose; microcarriers; cultured

Seventy years ago, Churchill famously said: 'We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.' Cultured meat is a healthier (less antibiotics), more ethical (better animal welfare), more efficient (better use of land) and sustainable way to produce meat and meet the protein demand of a growing population. The market for cultured meat is estimated to reach £30B in 2030 (McKinsey).To scale the production process there is a need for enabling technologies, like edible microcarriers that allow anchorage, proliferation and differentiation of stem cells, and then harvesting of the final product. Naturbeads cellulose beads production process (currently scaling from pilot to demo plant) allows customizing the properties of the cellulose beads to promote cells attachment, growth, and differentiation. We have already developed a prototype that shows performance in cell culture plates (2D) superior to commercially available scaffolding that are currently only used in R&D due to their prohibitive costs. With this project we aim to move from proof of concept to a commercial prototype that we can sell by the end of the project for industrial R&D to lock in customers for scaled up production. Naturbeads will work together with Cellular Agriculture to test the performance of the cellulose microcarriers in bioreactors (3D) to optimize the parameters for cell proliferation, differentiation in stirred tanks, and cell detachment.Naturbeads carriers are made of cellulose a natural, edible, and biocompatible biopolymer, that can be sourced sustainably from forestry groups part of PEFC (Programme for the endorsement of Forest Certification). It is also inexpensive, offering a low-cost scaffolding structure with the potential to lower production costs of culture meat, allowing it to reach price parity with conventional meat within the next five years.

七十年前，丘吉尔曾说过一句名言：“通过在合适的介质下分开种植这两部分，我们就可以避免为了吃胸部或翅膀而种植一整只鸡的荒谬。”养殖肉类是一种更健康(更少抗生素)、更符合道德(更好的动物福利)、更高效(更好地利用土地)和可持续的方式来生产肉类和满足不断增长的人口对蛋白质的需求。据估计，2030年养殖肉类市场将达到GB 30B(麦肯锡)。为了扩大生产过程，需要支持技术，如允许干细胞锚定、增殖和分化的可食用微载体，然后收获最终产品。Naturbeads纤维素珠生产工艺(目前从中试工厂扩展到示范工厂)允许定制纤维素珠的属性，以促进细胞附着、生长和分化。我们已经开发出了一种原型，它在细胞培养板(2D)中的性能优于目前仅用于研发的商业支架，因为它们的成本过高。通过这个项目，我们的目标是从概念验证转移到商业原型，我们可以在项目结束时销售给工业研发，以锁定客户进行扩大生产。天然珠将与细胞农业公司合作，测试生物反应器(3D)中纤维素微载体的性能，以优化细胞增殖、搅拌槽中的分化和细胞分离的参数。天然珠载体由纤维素制成，纤维素是一种天然、可食用和生物兼容的生物聚合物，可持续地来自PEFC(森林认证认可计划)的林业组织。它也很便宜，提供了一种低成本的脚手架结构，有可能降低养殖肉类的生产成本，使其在未来五年内达到与传统肉类平价的水平。