FBS-free methods for creating cultivated meat

The cultivated meat industry is slowly but surely on the rise, with analysts projecting that anywhere from 30–60% of meat sold in the year 2040 will come from cells grown in bioreactors. But while this may be considered good news for animal lovers, there’s one small problem with the cultivated meat process as it currently stands: it’s still reliant on animal products.

So what exactly is cultivated (or cultured) meat? Simply put, it is genuine meat that is produced by culturing animal cells directly and then forming them into the same structure as animal tissues, eliminating the need to raise and farm livestock for food. Apart from being friendlier towards animals, it is said to be far more efficient, using significantly less land and water, emitting fewer greenhouse gases and reducing agriculture-related pollution. It also avoids the risk of faecal contamination and does not require animals to live in close confinement on factory farms, which reduces the need for antibiotics in meat production as well as the risk of zoonotic pandemics.

The catch is that, in order to cultivate cell-based meat, animal cells are typically fed foetal bovine serum (FBS) — a mixture harvested from the blood of foetuses excised from pregnant cows slaughtered in the dairy or meat industries — to help them grow and proliferate, which largely defeats the purpose; other known methods are reliant on drugs or genetic engineering. Many of the molecules released by this process would come from the muscles within the slaughtered animal, but scientists have previously not known how to stimulate their release in production-scale bioreactors. The complex production process for cell-based meat thus increases cost, limits the manufacturing scale and undermines the commercial viability of cell-based meat.

To help address this challenge, a multidisciplinary research team led by Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón at the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently came up with an unconventional method of using magnetic pulses to stimulate the growth of cell-based meat. As described in the journal Biomaterials, the team used a delicately tuned pulsed magnetic field to culture myogenic stem cells, which are found in skeletal muscle and bone marrow tissue.

“In response to a short 10-minute exposure to the magnetic fields, the cells release a myriad of molecules that have regenerative, metabolic, anti-inflammatory and immunity-boosting properties,” Franco-Obregón said.

“These substances are part of what is known as the muscle ‘secretome’ (for secreted factors) and are necessary for the growth, survival and development of cells into tissues. We are very excited about the possibility that magnetically stimulated secretome release may one day replace the need for FBS in the production of cultured meat.

“The growth-inducing secretomes can be harvested in the lab safely and conveniently, and also at low cost. This way, the myogenic stem cells will act as a sustainable and green bioreactor to produce the nutrients-rich secretomes for growing cell-based meat at scale for consumption.

“The muscle knows how to produce what it needs to grow and develop — it simply needs a little bit of encouragement when it is outside its owner. This is what our magnetic fields can provide.”

A patent has already been filed for the technology and the NUS team is currently in active discussions with potential industry partners surrounding commercialisation. The harvested secretomes also have potential applications in regenerative medicine, and could be used to help cure injured cells and speed up a patient’s recovery.

Separately to this, scientists at Australian food company Magic Valley have created their own cultivated meat (lamb) prototype — initially created in the form of burgers and tacos — that is completely free from animal by-products, apart from a small skin biopsy that was taken from a newborn live lamb. The skin cells were then taken to Magic Valley’s Melbourne lab, where they were cultured in FSB-free media and reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

iPS cells can grow in an unlimited and scalable way, multiplying quickly and at a substantial volume more so than other cell types, so no further skin scrapings need to be taken. The cells can be made into muscle and fat — the main components of meat — and the Magic Valley team can even enhance the nutritional profile of their meat, with the ability to limit saturated fat, increase protein content or add vitamins such as B12 or omega 3s.

Magic Valley is now looking to scale up its abilities after the success of the prototype, with a $5 million seed capital raise ahead. This funding will help realise the company’s plans to create beef and pork prototypes and to get its range of products regulated, available and affordable to the average Australian by 2024. Furthermore, as the company increases its production scale, the entire end-to-end process is expected to take a matter of weeks — a far cry from the months or years it takes to raise livestock prior to slaughter.

“The biggest cost driver in producing cultivated meat is the medium that the cells are grown in, so by removing FBS and other animal-derived components from that medium, we’re really aiming to achieve price parity with conventional meat when we launch,” said Magic Valley founder and CEO Paul Bevan. “And then once we achieve economies of scale with food-grade inputs, I really expect the price point of cultivated meat to be cheaper than conventional meat.”

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