Animal Protein Minus the Animal: The Rise of Cellular Technologies

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Loreen Horn
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1 Animal Protein Minus the Animal: The Rise of Cellular Technologies Brad Barbera Director of Innovation The Good Food Institute Protein Trend and Technologies Seminar May 22, 2018

2 Today s roadmap Why Cellular Agriculture? Clean Meat: the technologies and current players Opportunities to accelerate commercialization

3 The Case for Cellular Agriculture

4 Why do we need alternatives to conventional animal agriculture? GFI s mission is to harness the power of markets and food technology to create a healthier, more sustainable, and more humane food system.

5 Environment World Resources Institute

6 Environment Animal agriculture is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.

7 Food Security Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the world s poor. ~World Watch Institute

Human Health - Nutrition Consuming a plant-based diet especially one rich in high-quality plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes is linked with substantially lower

8 Human Health - Nutrition Consuming a plant-based diet especially one rich in high-quality plant foods such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes is linked with substantially lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes * The American Heart Association reports that a diet that emphasizes plant-based foods compared to animal-based foods can lower the risks of dying from heart disease and stroke by up to 20 percent *Source: 2016 Study Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

9 Human Health Antibiotic Resistance 80% of antibiotics used in the United States are fed to farm animals. New Report Says FDA Allowed 'High Risk' Antibiotics to Be Used on Farm Animals, Time, January 28, 2014.

10 Animal Welfare 47% support ban on factory farming of animals 68% uncomfortable with the way animals are used in the food industry. 55% say they are trying to eat fewer animalbased foods.

11 This is a fundamental thermodynamics problem Feed (calories) Metabolism, mechanical energy, respiration, thermal energy, etc Food (calories)

12 So Why Do People Eat Meat?

13 Cellular Agriculture: Real Meat Without the Side Effects

14 Cellular Agriculture: Technology and Players

15 Alternative Proteins: Where Does Cellular Agriculture Fit In? Plant-based alternatives Cellular agriculture/ clean meat

16 Plant-based Milks High-Fidelity Plant-Based Burger Clean Meat Hybrid Products Recombinant Eggs and Dairy Clean Meat and Gelatin A Spectrum of Alternatives Fully plant-based Fully cellular ag.

17 A new application for an old technology: recombinant protein production Because the process is well-established, the risk is lower but the IP window may be narrow.

18 How does cellular agriculture differ from previous applications of recombinant protein production? Concentration of the protein in the final product Cost tolerance Level of purity Ability to efficiently express large, structural proteins

19 Recombinant Food Companies * Some companies are in stealth mode and we cannot disclose them yet.

20 Clean meat: meat made using cell culture rather than obtained from animal slaughter Myocytes (muscle cells) Fibroblasts, chondrocytes (connective tissue) Adipocytes (fat cells)

21 Inoculum from seed train Media recycling Porous scaffolding Cell proliferation bioreactor Media recycling Final product Tissue perfusion bioreactors

22 What s new are technologies that suddenly make this feasible. March 2017 National Academies Report on Biotechnology: clean meat identified as an area of high growth potential in the coming decade. Crafted and peerreviewed by more than a dozen leading scientists.

23 Cellular agriculture allows us not only to mimic, but to improve

24 Clean Meat Companies * Some companies are in stealth mode and we cannot disclose them yet.

26 Opportunities to accelerate commercialization

29 Cell line development A cell line is a strain of animal cells that can be reproduced in cell culture (in vitro).

salts, energy sources, and amino acids cells need to

30 Cell culture media The cell culture media is a nutrient broth that contains all of the vitamins, minerals, salts, energy sources, and amino acids cells need to grow. It also contains signaling molecules called growth factors.

31 Scaffolding Scaffolding provides a structure on which cells can attach, form complex 3D tissues, and differentiate and mature into their final cell type.

32 Bioreactors Bioreactors are the vessels in which cells proliferate (reproduce/divide) and mature. They need to provide circulation of the nutrients and gas exchange.

33 Where do we go from here? Impossibility, or inevitability?

34 Thank you! To learn more, get involved, or support our work, visit Or contact me:

Cellular Agriculture

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