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

随着全球对高质量蛋白质需求的增长，需要确定更可持续的来源。人工养殖肉是一个令人兴奋的解决方案，有可能彻底改变肉类生产的方式。它专注于在不需要传统农业和动物祭祀的情况下开发肉类，并有可能对环境产生积极影响并改善生物多样性。在地球仪，人工养殖肉类和相关的技术驱动型公司正在崛起，因为这个行业的成熟，并越来越多地提供了一个引人注目的机会。罗斯林技术（RT）是一家苏格兰生物技术公司，为全球人工养殖肉类行业带来了一套革命性的动物细胞产品。这些产品包括具有无限自我更新特性的诱导多能干细胞（iPSC），并且在实验室规模上能够定向分化为培养肉类（肌肉/脂肪）所需的关键细胞类型。RT的猪iPSC生产线已经被世界各地的养殖肉类公司用于开发原型。RT目前正在扩大其物种平台，从牛和羊中提取细胞系用于培育肉类。RT现在需要开发创新技术，使其客户能够大规模生产肌肉和脂肪细胞类型。这里的愿景是通过选择细胞系和开发新的方案，将RT的产品推向下一个阶段，以支持行业相关规模的有效细胞分化。在这里，RT将与罗斯林研究所（RI）的科学家密切合作，他们将带来牲畜干细胞生物学和表征方面的广泛专业知识/能力，以开发有效生产养殖牛肉肌肉和脂肪成分的强大协议。该团队将与工业生物技术创新中心的设备设施FlexBio合作（赫瑞瓦特大学）去风险规模-该项目建立在RT以前在为培育肉类部门生产专有动物干细胞方面取得的进展基础上，并将联合收割机与RI现有的深厚科学专业知识相结合和FlexBio，使RT能够通过提供端到端的材料/协议为其客户构建商业包装，使他们能够大规模生产肌肉和脂肪用于养殖肉类生产。该项目将通过应用对真正的牛肌肉和脂肪祖细胞的深入了解来支持具有无限自我更新能力的动物干细胞的分化，从而帮助加速全球行业的商业现实。

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.