There are two types of stem cells:
1. Mature Stem Cells
– Other Given Names: Adult Cells, Somatic Cells, Multipotent Cells
Obtained from body tissues, post-birth umbilical cords and placentas.
Mature stem cells can only yield cells from the same tissue type of which they originated. For example, a lung stem cell can only yield a lung stem cell and cannot yield a neural stem cell; this means they are multipotent.
2. Early Stem Cells
– Other Given Names: Embryonic, Pluripotent
Obtained from pre-embryos created by the in vitro fertilization process.
Early stem cells can yield cells for any tissue type. For example, an early stem cell can yield a lung stem cell or a neural stem cell: this means they are pluripotent.
Pluripotent stem cells have much greater potential than multipotent stem cells in cell based therapy applications because they can give rise to almost any tissue cell type in our body. However, it is difficult to obtain these pluripotent stem cells because they are only available in embryos. This brings us to 2006 when scientist Shinya Yamanaka discovered four specific genes encoding transcription factors which could convert adult cells (multipotent) into pluripotent stem cells. This technique, labeled ‘induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)’, won Professor Shinya Yamanaka along with Cambridge’s Sir John Gurdon a Nobel Prize in 2012.
Fast forward to 2017, Dr. Mark Kotter, researcher at The Cambridge Department of Clinical Neurosciences published a research paper entitled “Inducible and deterministic forward programming of human pluripotent stem cells”. The paper outlines the discovery of a proprietary technology, OPTi-OX. The process starts with an induced pluripotent stem cell which is engineered for a specific cell type and then reprogramed to an adult stem cell The result: consistent and homogeneous cell batches produced in a matter of days.
mature stem cell ☞ iPSC ☞ r e p r o g r a m ☞ mature stem cell
How does this relate to cell based meat production?
Dr. Kotter is now working with Meatable, a Netherlands-based company that produces cell-based meat. The OPTi-OX technology has been licensed to Meatable through Cambridge Enterprise, the University of Cambridge’s tech-transfer arm (via Kotter’s spin-out company Elpis BioMed). Meatable says they will use OPTi-OX to convert pluripotent cells into bovine muscle and fat cells significantly faster then they could without it.
