May 18, 2021
(LOS ANGELES) – The Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) has been awarded a grant by The Good Food Institute (GFI) to develop a unique and effective method of producing cultivated meat, which is meat grown directly from the cell. The TIBI researchers will draw upon their extensive experience in tissue engineering and cell culturing techniques to develop their innovative technology, which would use unique microcarriers in differentiating cell cultures. The project dovetails with GFI’s mission of advancing alternative proteins to create more sustainable methods of producing meat.
Conventional ways of meat production involving grass-fed livestock come at highly detrimental costs to the environment. Studies have shown that alternative meat sources, such as meat cultivated from animal cells, produce 92% less global warming, 93% less air pollution and use up to 95% less land and 78% less water than with conventional meat production methods. Not surprisingly, the potential advantages of alternative meat production have spurred much research and development in this area in recent years. Addressing the issues of scalability and costs for these methods, however, has remained a challenge, so scientists are continually striving to improve their methods and increase production efficiency.
The results of the TIBI project will be published and presented to the research community for feedback and ideas for further improvement. It is the hope that the methodology will eventually be used on a large scale to produce a high-quality, cost-effective commercial product that can be used to cultivate any meat species.
“There is a real need to produce worldwide food sources in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable manner,” said Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., TIBI director and CEO. “Our proposed method addresses all the challenges involved in creating a simple, scalable method of cultivated meat production. It is one of the many examples of the work that we do within our tissue engineering and personalized nutrition platforms.”
“Alternative proteins can feed the world sustainably and satisfy the surging global demand for meat,” said Erin Rees Clayton, Ph.D., GFI associate director of science and technology. “For alternative proteins to efficiently reach their potential, the industry must be underpinned by a robust foundation of open-access science. Investing in research enables us to answer fundamental questions, address unmet technological needs, and ultimately bring plant-based and cultivated meat to the masses.”
The grant to TIBI was awarded through GFI’s Research Grant Program, which funds foundational open-access alternative protein research and has allocated more than $7 million to 38 research initiatives since the program’s inception in 2018.
About The Good Food Institute
The Good Food Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working internationally to make alternative proteins delicious, affordable, and accessible. GFI advances open-access research; mobilizes resources and talent; and empowers partners across the food system to create a sustainable, secure, and just protein supply. GFI is funded entirely by private philanthropic support. GFI’s Research Grant Program is made possible by a select group of donors who have chosen to direct their philanthropic support to open-access research.