Partnership provides tools for cell-based meat research

Reagent company Kerafast, the developer of an online platform to facilitate access to lab-made bioresearch materials, has announced an agreement with The Good Food Institute, a non-profit organisation committed to making cultivated and plant-based meat and seafood a reality. Under the partnership, terrestrial meat and aquatic cell lines will be made available to scientists worldwide via Kerafast’s online catalogue, providing valuable research tools for the development of sustainable meat and seafood as alternatives to animal products.

Researchers across the globe are developing alternatives to conventionally produced animal protein, including cultivated meat and seafood (also referred to as ‘cell-based’ or ‘clean’), which is grown directly from animal cells without the need to raise and slaughter a whole animal. The potential benefits of cultivated meat and seafood include its sustainability, lack of animal welfare concerns and increased efficiency to better feed the growing global population.

However, limited access to relevant cell lines is slowing research progress into cultivated meat and seafood, with separate research teams having to create their own cell line or source it from another laboratory. Both these options take time and resources away from the downstream research that is needed to move the field forward.

Under the new partnership, terrestrial meat and aquatic cell lines originally created at research institutions will be added to Kerafast’s catalogue, where scientists worldwide can easily access the cell lines without a time-consuming material transfer agreement (MTA). Kerafast will handle all commercial and shipping logistics, market the materials to ensure they reach the widest possible audience and return a portion of the proceeds back to the developing research institution. By facilitating access to these cell lines, the goal is to accelerate research towards creating cultivated meat and seafood.

“We are excited to begin our partnership with The Good Food Institute,” said Dr Amelia Gibson, Senior Director of Product Licensing at Kerafast. “The Kerafast mission is to advance scientific research by facilitating access to unique lab-made research tools, and we’re eager to support the scientists who are developing sustainable meat and seafood by making related cell lines more readily available worldwide.”

“Lack of access to validated cell lines from popular food species is a significant barrier to research progress in the field of cultivated meat and especially cultivated seafood,” added The Good Food Institute Senior Scientist Claire Bomkamp. “Our new partnership with Kerafast will help to remove this barrier, empowering innovators in academia and industry to move us toward a more sustainable and just food system.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Africa Studio

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