Towards sustainable cultured meat production by developing a novel biocatalyst
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
The global meat consumption is substantial, with the average person consuming 45 kg of meat per year, and meat comprising 18% of the global food supply. This demand led to the slaughter of 80 billion animals in 2018, resulting in 340 million tons of meat production. However, despite animal-derived products providing only 17% of global food and 40-58% of proteins, animal agriculture has a disproportionate environmental impact. It occupies 77% of agricultural lands, utilizes 30% of water resources, and contributes 12-20% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns about meat consumption extend beyond environmental impacts. Epidemics like swine flu and avian flu have raised health concerns, and the use of antibiotics in the meat industry has led to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown or cell-cultured meat, has emerged as a potential solution to address sustainability challenges associated with traditional animal farming. The process involves isolating animal cells and allowing them to proliferate in a culture medium within a bioreactor. The cells differentiate into specialized cell types found in meat, and the matured cultured meat can be harvested, processed, and used to create various meat-based products. Currently, only Singapore and the US have approved the sale of cultured meat products, but their availability is limited due to high production costs and retail prices. The analysis indicates that the cell culture medium constitutes the majority of the costs, primarily attributed to the more expensive components such as recombinant proteins, essential amino acids, and growth factors.
Studies have shown that cultured meat has the potential to significantly reduce energy, land, and water use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, however, recent research indicates that cultured meat may still have higher emissions than pork and poultry but considerably lower emissions compared to beef, primarily due to the production of the culture medium ingredients and energy use in bioreactors.
The current research project's objective is to develop a simple cell (SimCell) -based biocatalyst that can convert metabolic wastes from animal cell culture, including ammonia and lactic acid, into those more expensive components such as essential amino acids and growth factors. SimCells are modified bacteria cells which cannot reproduce themselves but can perform certain functions as instructed by the designed gene circuits. The SimCells will then be placed in the animal cell culture bioreactor to convert the wastes into feed, which means less amount of cell culture medium need to be replaced, leading to reduced production cost and amount of waste. This project aims to enhance the sustainability of cultured meat production by reducing costs, improving resource efficiency, and potentially lowering environmental impacts.
Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown or cell-cultured meat, has emerged as a potential solution to address sustainability challenges associated with traditional animal farming. The process involves isolating animal cells and allowing them to proliferate in a culture medium within a bioreactor. The cells differentiate into specialized cell types found in meat, and the matured cultured meat can be harvested, processed, and used to create various meat-based products. Currently, only Singapore and the US have approved the sale of cultured meat products, but their availability is limited due to high production costs and retail prices. The analysis indicates that the cell culture medium constitutes the majority of the costs, primarily attributed to the more expensive components such as recombinant proteins, essential amino acids, and growth factors.
Studies have shown that cultured meat has the potential to significantly reduce energy, land, and water use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, however, recent research indicates that cultured meat may still have higher emissions than pork and poultry but considerably lower emissions compared to beef, primarily due to the production of the culture medium ingredients and energy use in bioreactors.
The current research project's objective is to develop a simple cell (SimCell) -based biocatalyst that can convert metabolic wastes from animal cell culture, including ammonia and lactic acid, into those more expensive components such as essential amino acids and growth factors. SimCells are modified bacteria cells which cannot reproduce themselves but can perform certain functions as instructed by the designed gene circuits. The SimCells will then be placed in the animal cell culture bioreactor to convert the wastes into feed, which means less amount of cell culture medium need to be replaced, leading to reduced production cost and amount of waste. This project aims to enhance the sustainability of cultured meat production by reducing costs, improving resource efficiency, and potentially lowering environmental impacts.
Technical Summary
Traditional farming has been under increasing pressure to produce enough meat to feed the increasing world population. It has also disproportionate environmental impact which occupies 77% of agricultural lands, utilizes 30% of water resources, and contributes 12-20% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Cultured meat, a product which comprises of cells or tissues grown in the controlled bioreactors from a biopsy taken initially from an animal, has the potential to significantly reduce energy, land and water use and also GHGE due to more efficient feed use, controlled environment, direct metabolism and absence of manure. However, it's availability has been hindered by high production cost, mainly due to the more expensive components used in the animal cell culture medium, such as essential amino acids and growth factors, and the amount of waste, mainly water, produced.
In this project, we aim to develop a SimCell-based biocatalyst to reduce the cost of cell culture medium and the amount of waste in the cultured meat production process. SimCells are chromosome-free bacteria cells but can process various genetic circuits. They are non-dividing but can be instructed to perform certain functions, for example, feeding on animal cell metabolic wastes such as ammonia and lactic acid and produce essential amino acids (e.g. arginine) and growth factors (e.g. fibroblast growth factor-2). By optimising the ration of SimCells to animal cells in the bioreactor, it is envisaged that significantly less amount of cell culture medium is required, thus reducing the cost of cell culture and amount of waste produced.
In this project, we aim to develop a SimCell-based biocatalyst to reduce the cost of cell culture medium and the amount of waste in the cultured meat production process. SimCells are chromosome-free bacteria cells but can process various genetic circuits. They are non-dividing but can be instructed to perform certain functions, for example, feeding on animal cell metabolic wastes such as ammonia and lactic acid and produce essential amino acids (e.g. arginine) and growth factors (e.g. fibroblast growth factor-2). By optimising the ration of SimCells to animal cells in the bioreactor, it is envisaged that significantly less amount of cell culture medium is required, thus reducing the cost of cell culture and amount of waste produced.
