1. Muscle Pre-Cursor Cells (starting cells taken from the animal to replicate)
2. Scaffold (a supportive structure for the cells to grow)
3. Bioreactor (an aseptic temperature and PH controlled environment i.e. a home)
4. Cell Culture Media (a growth medium i.e. food)
Muscle pre-cursor cells are starter cells taken through a biopsy from an animal and used to cultivate tissues. Muscle pre-cursor cells have a limited lifespan and will regularly need replenishing in the form of another tissue biopsy from an animal.
Scaffolds provide structure for cells to replicate and enables the growth of a variety of structures of meat such as steaks or chicken breasts. There are materials that can be used as scaffolds — all containing a set of design requirements: biocompatibility, biodegradability, elasticity, pore size, geometry, tensile strength. Some examples of scaffold materials are silk, collagen, gellan gum and alginate.
A cell based tech scaffold is not a physical structure or stage like those used for construction.
A bioreactor is an aseptic environment with a controlled temperature and PH that supports cell proliferation. A bioreactor enables cell based meat to be produced on a large scale and a clean, stable environment for the cells to grow.
Cell culture media contains nutrients (both organic and inorganic): vitamins, salts, O2 and CO2 gas phases, serum proteins, carbohydrates, cofactors.
Serum proteins are an integral component to cell culture media. Serum provides various growth factors and hormones involved in growth promotion and specialized cell function.
The most common serum on the market is fetal bovine serum: blood taken from an unborn calf whose mother was slaughtered. Therefore reliant on the current system of slaughterhouse agriculture and contrary to the point of cell based meat production.
There are companies working on artificial cell culture media that do not contain fetal bovine serum, but it is still not clear as to whether these serums can efficiently promote cell growth.