About

 
 

Background

Cells require culture media in order to grow and multiply and to differentiate into the required cell types. Culture media contains essential nutrients (carbohydrates, amino acids, lipids, salts) and growth factors or other supplements.

A commonly used cell culture supplement is fetal bovine serum (FBS), an expensive cocktail of growth proteins taken from the blood of cow fetuses. Therefore, an alternative that is more sustainable, cheaper and does not require the killing of animals is crucial for the commercial success of cellular agriculture.

Finding the best ways to test media formulations and to deliver media to cells are also important considerations.

Research focus areas

  • Basal (basic) media – researchers are looking at ways to source and test cheaper food-grade media ingredients from a variety of sources (e.g. from plants and microbes).

  • Media supplements – finding animal-free alternatives or more ethical solutions to FBS and other growth supplements is a major focus area. Alternatives can be plant-derived factors, small molecule equivalents, or animal growth factors that are made synthetically or through fermentation (e.g. using microbes or plants to make them).

  • Media profiling – both basal media and supplement development will need thorough understanding of biochemistry, particularly protein chemistry and developmental growth mechanisms. Even greater attention will need to be given to media designed for co-culturing different types of cells with different requirements (e.g. growing muscle and fat cells together as that will gie the most realistic and similar meat in terms of both texture and taste). Screening and experimentation to find the optimal formulations will be aided greatly by computational and miniature modeling.

  • Media management – finding ways to utilize media most efficiently is very important to keep costs down. This could include media recycling or maximizing delivery to individual cells. How media waste is handled also requires consideration. When a system is in a closed loop which incorporates recycling, replenishing or reusing materials it is most sustainable for the long run.