Cell Based Tech Weekly – A Perspective on Fish, Mosa Meat’s Cost Reduction, Geltor’s Serie [B]ig

Categories Weekly Report

Scientists from the University of Washington, Nova Southeastern University in Florida, McMaster University (Canada), and Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada) published a perspective about cell based fish. https://cellbased.link/51z 

The perspective hypothesizes that fish, specifically lean fish or “white fish” with low fat muscle tissue may initially be the most tenable species to manufacture through cellular agriculture. 

  • Engineering Advantages: 
    • Cell Doubling: some studies suggest fish cells can undergo more doublings compared to mammalian or avian cells before senescence (cells 💀)
    • Cell Stability: some studies suggest fish cells maintain karyotypic stability (less mutations as cells double) compared to mammalian or avian cells 
    • Bioreactor Requirements: fish cells can be cultured in atmospheric air
  • Taste/ Nutritional Makeup Advantages
    • Lean fish have less fat cells making them potentially easier to manufacture because there is no need to culture fat cells in addition to muscle cells to achieve viable flavor/texture. 
    • Lean fish have a simpler flavor profile and are also interchangeable across a range of lean fish species such as pollack, cod, haddock, hake, tilapia. 

This research was sponsored by Clean Research Inc., a 501c(3) non-profit with a goal to democratize cell based fish science. 

I asked Alain Rostain, Executive Director of Clean Research some questions about the open approach who believes:

  • It is of critical importance to create shared knowledge and develop a new collaborative R&D model (happening at the University level) as opposed to the current landscape of many private venture back companies working on R&D separately. 
  • Regarding timeline to develop cell based fish science before attempting commercialization Rostain stated “we are setting a three-year time window, and intend to revisit this in a year. If it is not extended, then 3 years until commercialization attempts can start. But it might be 5 years.”

88x Cost Reduction Milestone

OG 1️⃣ cell based meat company Mosa Meat announced a milestone in cost reduction of their FBS free cell culture medium. Although we still do not know what the current price is or how much is needed to produce a pound of cell based meat, Mosa Meat disclosed the cost was reduced by 88x and is continuing to drive this cost lower. This news comes shortly after Mosa Meat raised 5M euros from Bell Food Group earlier this month. https://cellbased.link/f8i  

What We Know: Cell culture media will make up roughly 80% of the cost to produce cell based meat. Some companies I have talked with suggest the current price of cell culture media to be around $100/L. 

Investments

Geltor closed a $91.3M Series B financing round led by CPT Capital. Additional investors include WTT Investment Ltd. (Taipei, Taiwan), Cultivian Sandbox, SOSV, and iSelect Fund, along with the investment arms of global ingredient technology companies GELITA and Archer Daniels Midland. New investors include Blue Horizon Ventures, RIT Capital Partners, Humboldt Fund, and Pegasus Tech Ventures. https://cellbased.link/1to 

  • If $91.3M seems like a lot of money for collagen, that is because it is. Geltor is looking beyond collagen to revolutionize cosmetic ingredients on multiple fronts to tailor custom bioactive ingredients for specific product needs. They are calling this approach  Ingredients-as-a-Service™ to develop industrial strength “hero” ingredients using biology (as opposed to chemistry) in an effort to make cosmetics with more precise quality. 

Beyond Cosmetics: In 2019, GELITA and Geltor signed a letter of intent for developing, producing and marketing the first ingestible animal-free collagen proteins – to be launched in late 2020 → we are anxiously awaiting this development!