Recipient Organization
REEL SEAFOOD, INC.
280 UTAH AVE STE 250
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO,CA 94080
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Cultivated meat offers a more sustainable and efficient alternative to traditional agriculture by addressing national food security, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and optimizing land and water utilization. Faced with these benefits, over 80% of consumers have shown interest in trying it. However, existing alternative protein products face taste, processing and texture issues, failing to capture consumers. Cultivated meat technology is still nascent and faces many bioprocess-related challenges to achieve a scaled and resource efficient production of meat. Current approaches are limited by low yields, correlating with a high cost of production at ~$150/lb of cultivated meat. In order for alternative proteins to realize these benefits and capture a portion of conventional meat and seafood, it needs to a) deliver a high-quality product that matches consumer expectations and b) be manufactured in a scalable way to meet volume and cost requirements.Reel's platform targets these key bottlenecks with two key innovations.Proprietary platform enables thick, cellularly dense whole-cut products: Reel's proprietary system aims to address a critical technical hurdle in tissue engineering--specifically, the challenge of maintaining high cell viability in thick tissues due to limited oxygen diffusion. The system is capable of maintaining high cell viability in thick, cellularly dense tissues, thus enabling a natural, whole-cut product with cell-driven texture. This method is much more scalable, reducing structuring time by over 2 orders of magnitude compared to existing methods like layer-by-layer printing.Methodto enable scalable, cost-efficient biomass production: Reel'sproduction method supports the cultureof adherent muscle stem cells. This scalable 3D cell culture method drives higher yields and enables cost-efficient biomass production, with the potential to reduce capital expenditure significantly for an equivalent amount of cultivated meat vs. existing methods. In the short term, these innovations will be applied to cultivated meat to realize the potential of cultivated meat as a more sustainable and secure food production system. It has the potential to lower GHG emissions by 55-92% in beef and 17% in chicken, and its efficient feed use lowers the demand for feed crops and decreases land use. It also addresses critical health concerns, providing a clean alternative free from mercury, microplastics and PCBs in seafood and lowering the risk of zoonotic diseases and antibiotics use due to elimination of close animal confinement in other proteins.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
25%
Developmental
75%
Goals / Objectives
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.
Project Methods
The proposed work plan focuses on addressing key technical questions in tissue engineering. These questions are structured to evaluate the feasibility of culturing skeletal muscle cells efficiently in a proprietary hydrogel system (BioBlocks), maintaining cell viability in thick tissue constructs through a perfusable network of microchannels, and determining the cell density requirements for achieving bulk mechanical properties comparable to meat.Key Technical Question 1: The objective is to demonstrate the viability and proliferation of skeletal muscle cells within BioBlocks, transitioning from 2D to 3D culture environments. The milestone is to achieve 80% cell viability in each Bioblock after multi-day perfusion and 1% viable cell volume (VCV) in shaker flasks. The experimental design involves evaluating cells in different extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogels.Mechanical properties of acellular BioBlocks will be characterized, and cell viability will be measured over time to optimize conditions.Key Technical Question 2: The aim is to maintain cell viability in thick tissue constructs using a perfusable network of microchannels. The objective is to achieve 80% viability after multi-day perfusion. The experimental design involves combining cell-laden BioBlocks with a structuring system and tuning parameters affectingflow dynamics. Viability testing includes assessing cell survival during our proprietary process, measuring flow homogeneity, and evaluating viability over extended perfusion periods.Key Technical Question 3: The objective is to determine the minimum cell density required to achieve tissue stiffness comparable to meat. The goal is to generate tissues with 15 kPa stiffness, roughly half that of fish. Mechanical properties will be characterized using a rheometer to measure compressive and shear modulus. Acellular tissue and cell-laden BioBlocks will be evaluated to isolate the contribution of cells to tissue stiffness. Varying cell density and incubation time will assess changes in mechanical properties over time.