Cultivated Meat: A Scalable Modular Assembly Approach for Enhanced Yield & Cell-Driven Texture

CultivatedmeathasthepotentialtolowerGHGemissions(55-92%inbeef)decreaseresourceuse (60%lesslanduseinchicken)andimprovehealthoutcomes.Howeverthesebenefitscanonlybe realizedifcultivatedmeatismanufacturedandadoptedatscale.Thegoalofthisprojectistoa) enablecost-efficientscalablebiomassproductionandb)improveproductqualitybydemonstrating cell-driventexture. Itiscriticaltomaximizebioreactoryieldasitdrivesdownmediacostsandcapitalexpenditure requirements.Tothisendwehavedevelopeda3Dcellularencapsulationmethod(BioBlocks) wherecellsareseededintosphericalhydrogelsthatsupporttheproliferationandspreadingof musclestemcellsandprotectscellsfromshearstressesinthebioreactor.PhaseIaimstomatch best-in-class1%viablecellvolumesatunoptimizedbench-scaleandsetsthefoundationtodrivea further~40xincreasefollowingbioprocessoptimization.Wewilldosobyevaluatingcellphenotype acrossdifferentextracellularmatrixhydrogelsparticlestiffnessesandstressrelaxationtimes. Toenablecell-driventexturewehavedevelopedascalablemethodcapableofpatterningperfusable vascularnetworksinahighthroughputmanner.Thisallowsustomaintaincellularviabilityinthick cellularlydensetissuesallowingviablecellstomatureandfusewiththeirneighborstoreplicate musclefiberarchitecture.Inthisprojectweaimtogeneratetissueswith15Kpastiffness~50%the stiffnessoffishandwilldosobytuningparticlestiffnessandfluiddynamicsinourvasculature systemtooptimizecellviabilityandspreading.