Development of scalable animal-free bioprocesses for cultivated meat production

人们越来越需要可持续的、富含蛋白质的食物来源，以支持快速增长的人口。目前生产肉类的农业做法是不道德和不可持续的，因为它们使用了大量的自然资源（土地，水），而且占温室气体排放总量的14.5%。人造肉等替代蛋白质技术可以提供可持续的解决方案。人造肉是在生物反应器中在受控条件下从活组织检查获得的动物细胞中生产出来的动物肉。目前，许多原型养殖肉制品使用的材料来自动物，如胎牛血清，这需要动物屠宰，是不可持续的。为了最大限度地提高养殖肉类对环境和动物福利的积极影响，所有动物来源的成分都应该被可持续的替代品所取代。该项目旨在开发一种可持续的、可扩展的、无动物的养殖肉类生产工艺。这将通过：1)单层猪间充质干细胞和猪成肌细胞的扩增和分化来实现；2)开发可扩展的过程，使这些细胞在生物反应器中扩增和分化；3)通过测试传统的生长因子鸡尾酒来替代动物来源的成分，以及受以下因素启发的可持续材料：a)食物、饮食习惯和文化，如植物水解物、高蛋白含量的面粉和粉末（如膳食虫粉、酵母提取物、营养酵母-素食替代品、雪菌粉）；b)健身习惯，如高含量的蛋白质粉末、氨基酸、肌酸等。该项目将导致开发无动物培养基配方和可扩展的工艺，用于生产用于养殖肉类的猪干细胞。这些发现将有利于整个养殖肉类行业，因为它将为当前阻碍这些产品商业化的挑战提供解决方案。该项目与EPSRC的制造技术和工艺系统研究领域保持一致。

There is an increased need for sustainable, protein rich food sources to support the rapidly growing population. The current agricultural practices to produce meat are unethical and unsustainable as they utilise a high proportion of natural resources (land, water) and moreover are responsible for ~14.5% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative protein technologies such as cultivated meat can provide a sustainable solution. Cultivated meat is animal meat that is produced in a bioreactor under controlled conditions from animal cells obtained through a biopsy. Many prototype cultivated meat products are currently grown using materials derived from animals such as foetal bovine serum which requires animal slaughter and is not sustainable. To maximise the positive environmental and animal welfare outcomes of cultivated meat, all animal-derived components should be replaced by sustainable alternatives. This project aims to develop a sustainable, scalable and animal-free manufacturing process for cultivated meat production. This will be achieved by:1) expansion and differentiation of porcine mesenchymal stem cells and porcine myoblasts in monolayer;2) developing scalable processes for expansion and differentiation of these cells in bioreactors; 3) replacing animal-derived components by testing conventional growth factor cocktails, as well as sustainable materials inspired from a) foods, dietary practices and cultures such as plant-based hydrolysates, high protein content flours and powders (e.g meal worm flour, yeast extract, nutritional yeast - vegan replacements, snow fungus powder) and b) fitness practices such as high content protein powders, aminoacids, creatine etc. This project will result in the development of animal-free media formulations and scalable processes for manufacturing porcine stem cells for cultivated meat. These findings will be beneficial to the entire cultivated meat industry as it will provide solutions to the current challenges that are hindering the commercialisation of these types of products. This project aligns with EPSRC's research areas of manufacturing technologies and process systems.