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

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业影响包括改善粮食安全、环境效益和人类健康效益。这个项目将开发一种肉类替代品，更接近于模仿动物肉类的味道和质地。从拟议项目中开发的技术将用于建立一个垂直整合的食品制造平台，该平台可以抵御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，具有许多环境效益-减少温室气体排放和水生污染；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。拟议的项目旨在开发一种基于发酵的肉类替代品，通过重组蛋白质技术更接近地模仿动物饲料的味道和质地。此外，该项目旨在利用蘑菇菌丝体的质地和风味，并补充重组肌肉蛋白，以进一步改善味道和营养状况，并克服现有植物性肉制品的许多缺点。迄今为止，将重组肌肉蛋白与单细胞蛋白结合的概念是新颖的，尚未有报道。在成本和消费者体验方面，植物肉和实验室培育肉之间存在巨大差距。植物性肉类更实惠，但由于质地和营养状况不佳，面临消费者的抵制，而种植肉类提供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，并与植物蛋白酶交联，以产生可用于合成肉的蛋白质纤维。技术目标还包括演示从肉中提取的肌肉纤维蛋白与从蘑菇中提取的真菌蛋白交联的可行性，以产生所需的质地和风味特性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.