CULTIVATED MEAT: A SCALABLE MODULAR ASSEMBLY APPROACH FOR ENHANCED YIELD & CELL-DRIVEN TEXTURE

Animal agriculture contributes ~20% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, almost two times as large as plant-based sources. Livestock production also requires significant land and water resources. It uses 70% of all agricultural land for grazing and growing crops for animal feedand 70% of the global available freshwater supply. The impact of our food systems on the environment will only grow over time, with a projected increase of 73% in global meat consumption and 80% in global seafood consumption by 2050.Cultivated meat is a more efficient and sustainable alternative to existing agricultural processes. It has the potential to lower GHG emissions, decrease land and water resource use and improve health outcomes (reduced antibiotics use, contaminant free meat). However, these benefits can only be realized if cultivated meat is manufactured and adopted at scale. The goal of this project is to a) enable cost-efficient, scalable biomass production and b) improve product quality by demonstrating cell-driven texture.To enable this, theproposed innovation involves two key components. The first is a scalable method of patterning perfusable vascular networks using a proprietarysystem. This enables a natural product with cell-driven texture and is much more scalable by reducing structuring time.The second component is a method to support the proliferation and spreading of adherent muscle stem cells that increases yield for cost-efficient, scalable biomass production.