Rethinking Cultured Meat (CM) Growth Medium: Can Grassland Plant-Derived Supplements Sustainably Support CM Production?

Cultured protein/cultivated meat heralds an age of biological innovations that can provide alternative nutritious, flavourful and high-quality protein that is indistinguishable to the traditional.
There is considerable uncertainty over the environmental impacts of CM production; although global warming will be less with CM than with cattle initially, this may not apply in the long term because the methane (CH4) associated with cattle production does not accumulate in the atmosphere, unlike CO2, the main greenhouse gas associated with CM production. Future impacts of CM will therefore depend on the availability of renewable systems of energy generation and current/future production systems in animal agriculture. Approximately 70% of the UK's commercial forage crops are grasses and clover from which a fructose and protein nutrient rich juice can be readily extracted. In cattle and sheep fructose and protein undergo metabolism in the rumen producing volatile fatty acids (VFA's) and microbial cellular protein (MCP) which undergoes proteolysis to AA for nutritional uptake along with VFAs. Both VFA's and MCP can be produced during the acidogenic phase of anaerobic digestion (AD), prior to production of CH4, and following proteolysis and downstream processing (DSP) could potentially ne a media for CM production.
The student will undergo interdisciplinary training in biorefining and grassland science, anaerobic fermentation, population dynamics, bioinformatics and biotechnology to investigate protein and carbohydrate bioconversion to media formulations. Specific cell culture experimental design, methodological skills and analysis for CM production (i.e. cell culturing, biological analysis, microscopy) will be developed through experimental work).