In vitro Insect Fat Cultivation for Cellular Agriculture Applications

A scoping review of cultivated meat techno-economic analyses to inform future research directions for scaled-up manufacturing

Techno-economic analyses offer insights into how industrial cultivated meat (CM) production could achieve price parity with conventional meat. These analyses use scaling practices, data and facility designs for related bioprocessing fields, including large (≥20,000 l) stirred tank bioreactors and suspension-tolerant, continuously available cell lines. This approach is inconsistent with most primary CM literature, which parallels bench-scale tissue engineering. TEAs published to date demonstrate that, under the current technological paradigm, CM is unlikely to be competitive with conventional meat. Scale-up feasibility may hinge on cost-saving areas such as use of plant-based media components, food-grade aseptic conditions and extensive scaling of related supply chains. Research must address knowledge gaps including serum-free differentiation, new bioreactor designs and facility design before CM can become a viable alternative to animal-based meat production.

Filamentous fungal pellets as versatile platforms for cell immobilization: developments to date and future perspectives

Filamentous fungi are well-known for their efficiency in producing valuable molecules of industrial significance, but applications of fungal biomass remain relatively less explored despite its abundant and diverse opportunities in biotechnology. One promising application of mycelial biomass is as a platform to immobilize different cell types such as animal, plant, and microbial cells. Filamentous fungal biomass with little to no treatment is a sustainable biomaterial which can also be food safe compared to other immobilization supports which may otherwise be synthetic or heavily processed. Because of these features, the fungal-cell combination can be tailored towards the targeted application and be applied in a variety of fields from bioremediation to biomedicine. Optimization efforts to improve cell loading on the mycelium has led to advancements both in the applied and basic sciences to understand the inter- and intra-kingdom interactions. This comprehensive review compiles for the first time the current state of the art of the immobilization of animal, yeast, microalgae, bacteria, and plant cells in filamentous fungal supports and presents outlook of applications in intensified fermentations, food and biofuel production, and wastewater treatment. Opportunities for further research and development were identified to include elucidation of the physical, chemical, and biological bases of the immobilization mechanisms and co-culture dynamics; expansion of the cell-fungus combinations investigated; exploration of previously unconsidered applications; and demonstration of scaled-up operations. It is concluded that the potential exists to leverage the unique qualities of filamentous fungus as a cellular support in the creation of novel materials and products in support of the circular bioeconomy.

Scalable Processes for Culturing Meat Using Edible Scaffolds

There is increasing consumer demand for alternative animal protein products that are delicious and sustainably produced to address concerns about the impacts of mass-produced meat on human and planetary health. Cultured meat has the potential to provide a source of nutritious dietary protein that both is palatable and has reduced environmental impact. However, strategies to support the production of cultured meats at the scale required for food consumption will be critical. In this review, we discuss the current challenges and opportunities of using edible scaffolds for scaling up the production of cultured meat. We provide an overview of different types of edible scaffolds, scaffold fabrication techniques, and common scaffold materials. Finally, we highlight potential advantages of using edible scaffolds to advance cultured meat production by accelerating cell growth and differentiation, providing structure to build complex 3D tissues, and enhancing the nutritional and sensory properties of cultured meat.

Differentiation and Maturation of Muscle and Fat Cells in Cultivated Seafood: Lessons from Developmental Biology

Cultivated meat, also known as cultured or cell-based meat, is meat produced directly from cultured animal cells rather than from a whole animal. Cultivated meat and seafood have been proposed as a means of mitigating the substantial harms associated with current production methods, including damage to the environment, antibiotic resistance, food security challenges, poor animal welfare, and-in the case of seafood-overfishing and ecological damage associated with fishing and aquaculture. Because biomedical tissue engineering research, from which cultivated meat draws a great deal of inspiration, has thus far been conducted almost exclusively in mammals, cultivated seafood suffers from a lack of established protocols for producing complex tissues in vitro. At the same time, fish such as the zebrafish Danio rerio have been widely used as model organisms in developmental biology. Therefore, many of the mechanisms and signaling pathways involved in the formation of muscle, fat, and other relevant tissue are relatively well understood for this species. The same processes are understood to a lesser degree in aquatic invertebrates. This review discusses the differentiation and maturation of meat-relevant cell types in aquatic species and makes recommendations for future research aimed at recapitulating these processes to produce cultivated fish and shellfish.