In a recent Reuters article, CEO of JUST, Josh Tetrick stated the company aims to return an operating profit before the end of 2021, at which point the company will consider an IPO. 

To cut costs, Tetrick said the company needs to find ways to extract more protein from mung beans, and buy more beans from its suppliers in East Africa and Asia so it can negotiate lower costs.  

Why We Care: JUST would be the […]

In a recent Reuters article, CEO of JUST, Josh Tetrick stated the company aims to return an operating profit before the end of 2021, at which point the company will consider an IPO. 

To cut costs, Tetrick said the company needs to find ways to extract more protein from mung beans, and buy more beans from its suppliers in East Africa and Asia so it can negotiate lower costs.  

Why We Care: JUST would be the first direct to consumer “almost-pure-play” cell ag company to come public in the U.S. Although JUST is generating all of its revenue and eventual operating profits from plant based products, we believe the company is continuously growing their cell based meat R&D. Currently, JUST is hiring a bioprocessing position to work with animal cell cultures developing media, operating bioreactors and harvesting cells. JUST’s first cell based meat product will likely be chicken nuggets composed of cell cultured chicken blended with mung bean protein isolate. 

Higer Steaks Moves HQ

UK Cell based meat company Higher Steaks relocates to Cambridge Science Park, a collaborative community of deep tech and life sciences based companies. 

  • Cambridge Science Park is also home to potential cell based meat enabling technology companies including Sigma Aldrich. Cambridge Science Park is also looking to recruit additional scientists in stem cells, bioprocessing and tissue engineering. https://cellbased.link/zj8

Kudos to Industrializing Cell Based Meat Conference

This past week I attended (virtually) the Industrializing Cell Based Meat Conference. It was nice to meet those of you I had the pleasure of connecting with over speed networking for the first time → a fantastic feature that actually seemed like a more efficient networking experience then in person!

Takeaways:

  • Cell culture media and scaffold were at the forefront of discussions:
    • Molecular farming technology to reduce the cost of growth factor production;
    • Various technological approaches for de-cellularized scaffolding and electrospinning.
  • Paul Shapiro, CEO of Better Meat Co. brought up some interesting perspectives about the importance of an “all of the above” strategy to reduce factory farming --- this means looking at plant based, cell based, and hybridized solutions.
    • This hybridized space is a white space for innovation to develop science around the best ways to blend animal proteins with plant and cell based materials marrying ingredients and flavors to make more delicious products that incrementally reduce animal inputs.

source:orfgenetics

This week I am exploring a topic called plant molecular farming.

Background about this technology: Plant molecular farming refers to the production of recombinant proteins in plants. The process begins by inserting the desired protein DNA into the plasmid of a plant cell. Seeds are subsequently grown into transgenic plants (plants that contain foreign DNA). Once grown, either the leaves or the seeds of the plants may be harvested and are ready to undergo downstream processing to […]

source:orfgenetics

This week I am exploring a topic called plant molecular farming.

Background about this technology: Plant molecular farming refers to the production of recombinant proteins in plants. The process begins by inserting the desired protein DNA into the plasmid of a plant cell. Seeds are subsequently grown into transgenic plants (plants that contain foreign DNA). Once grown, either the leaves or the seeds of the plants may be harvested and are ready to undergo downstream processing to recover the protein product. (Buyel JF - Plant Molecular Farming - Integration and Exploitation of Side Streams to Achieve Sustainable Biomanufacturing. Front Plant Sci. 2019;9:1893. Published 2019 Jan 18)

  • This is a complex process that requires separation of the desired protein from all impurities, plant secondary metabolites. 

Molecular Farming is an alternate approach to inserting protein DNA into a prokaryotic organism such as a yeast or bacteria cell and fermenting the organism inside of a bioreactor system.

  • Transgenic plants actually serve as a single use bioreactor system and become the workhorse for protein production rather than a yeast or bacteria cell that is fermented in a microbial production system. 
  • This approach eliminates the need for bioreactor manufacturing systems while still employing recombinant protein technology to express specific high value compounds that can be used for a range of applications such as vaccines, cosmetics, biofuels, industrial enzymes, medications, and more recently food ingredients. 

Why We Care: This technology may prove to be just what cellular agriculture needs to reduce the high cost of growth factors needed in significant quantities to produce cell cultured meat. Currently, growth factors are estimated to make up ~80% of the cost of production of cell based meat. 

I spoke with legacy plant molecular farming company based in Iceland, ORF Genetics about the company’s recent 2.5 million Euro research and innovation grant from the European Union to pursue development of growth factors for cell based meat under the product line MESOkine.

ORF Genetics has been using barley seeds to synthesize high value proteins since its founding in 2001. The barley seeds serve as a self-contained bioreactor to protect the genetic sequence that has been engineered to synthesize specific proteins. 

ORF Genetics has primarily been producing human growth factors for stem cell research and the skin care industry (check out their hero ingredient Epidermal Growth Factor). The company has now recognized a major opportunity in leveraging their experience and know-how in mammalian stem cell growth factors for the burgeoning cell based meat market. 

The platform will kick off with a strong pipeline of growth factors including EGF, FGF BASIC, IGF-1, IL-6, KGF, LIF, VEGF 165.

I spoke with company Co-Founder, CSO & EVP of Research & Innovation Dr. Björn Lárus Örvar about the advantages of this technology compared to fermentation systems and he shared the following

  1. The plant based system does not require a build out of costly bioreactor systems. 
  2. The plant based system can be scaled quickly and to agricultural scales. Plants can be cultivated on an agricultural scale to yield 100–1000 kg of the pure protein per year. (Fischer, Rainer & Buyel, Johannes, 2020, Molecular farming – The slope of enlightenment. Biotechnology Advances. 40. 107519.0.1016/j.biotechadv.2020.107519.)
  3. ORF Genetics has identified native proteins inside of the barley seed that can be included in the final growth factor to stabilize and improve the efficiency of the growth factor impact on stem cell proliferation and differentiation

Barley Seed is Key to ORF Genetics platform for producing food grade components because it already has the GRAS certification. Additionally, the barley seed platform has some unique advantages in the food grade production system

  1. Streamlined downstream processing because most of the impurities are in the seed coat which is easier to purify compared to other plant molecular farming systems such as tobacco leaves
  2. Once the seeds are harvested they can be stockpiled and stored indefinitely prior to downstream processing to extract growth factors → this is a huge advantage in establishing a stable and reliable supply for growth factors for cellular agriculture

In addition to growth factors ORF Genetics is looking to build out a larger portfolio of food based proteins (think hemoglobins) and taste modifying proteins (think proteins that remove bitter off notes or improve sweetness → These proteins have a wide range of applications from plant based meat to low calories sweeteners. 

Bottom Line: Barley seeds may quite literally hold the key to unlocking valuable cellular agriculture inputs, which can improve food security and stability of the supply chain for important cell growth factors. 

California cell based meat company New Age Meats raised a $2 million seed extension round led by TechU Ventures. Additional investors include ff Venture Capital, SOSV, Sand Hill Angels, Siddhi Capital, Losa Group, and members of the San Diego Tech Coast Angels. https://cellbased.link/xqp 

This brings New Age Meats total funding to date to $4.7 million.

Background: New Age Meats is working to build out cell based pork sausage. I asked the company to elaborate on their cell types/cell […]

California cell based meat company New Age Meats raised a $2 million seed extension round led by TechU Ventures. Additional investors include ff Venture Capital, SOSV, Sand Hill Angels, Siddhi Capital, Losa Group, and members of the San Diego Tech Coast Angels. https://cellbased.link/xqp 

This brings New Age Meats total funding to date to $4.7 million.

Background: New Age Meats is working to build out cell based pork sausage. I asked the company to elaborate on their cell types/cell line development, media formulation, bioreactor design, and scaffolding, but the company declined to comment -- stating these details are a little too specific about their tight lipped technology. 

What We Do Know: According to a company press release, New Age Meats will use the additional capital for new hires specifically expansion of its food science department. In addition to a focus on “food research” New Age seems to be hiring for a few technical roles specifically a Chief Technology Officer and Bioengineer for which one of the duties includes evaluating microcarrier formulations. 

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 💀)
[…]

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!

It looks like KFC is going to be the first fast food chain taking the plunge into cell based territory through a collaboration with Russian based cell based meat and tissue construction company 3D Bioprinting Solutions. https://cellbased.link/cpy 

  • According to a company press release, “the project aims to create the world’s first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets. They will be as close as possible in both taste and appearance to the original KFC product, while being more environmentally friendly to make than
[…]

It looks like KFC is going to be the first fast food chain taking the plunge into cell based territory through a collaboration with Russian based cell based meat and tissue construction company 3D Bioprinting Solutions. https://cellbased.link/cpy 

  • According to a company press release, “the project aims to create the world's first laboratory-produced chicken nuggets. They will be as close as possible in both taste and appearance to the original KFC product, while being more environmentally friendly to make than ordinary meat. 

Background: 3D Bioprinting Solutions is developing additive bioprinting technology with a robust intellectual property portfolio -- specifically around the use of 3D printing to generate vascularized 3D tissue spheroids. Their IP addresses ways to increase the speed and accuracy of printing three dimensional cell aggregates with specific printer designs that filter cell culture media through separate channels AND addresses issues with waste build up + medium recycling through cell spheroids. 

What We Know: 3D Bioprinting Solutions process and technology is only relevant in the actual construction of the product (i.e. constructing the plant materials with the cell materials to form a 3D nugget → the actual proliferation of the chicken cells and ability to supply these cells in large quantities to be printed is still an important piece of the puzzle that must be addressed. In 2019, 3D Bioprinting worked with Aleph Farms and Finless Foods, both supplying cell lines to be used in 3D bioprinting research and development, to create a cell based prototype on the international space station. This suggests 3D Bioprinting Solutions may end up partnering with another larger cell based startup to source cell avian cell lines. 

Higher Steaks Milestone, Sorry Not Price

UK based cell based meat company Higher Steaks revealed a milestone accomplishment in recent TechCrunch article: production of its first sample products including cell based bacon and pork belly:

  • Bacon = 70% cultivated cells + 30% mixture of plant based proteins fats and starches
  • Pork Belly = 50% cultivated cells + 50% mixture of plant based proteins fats and starches

According to the article, Benjamina Bollag, Higher Steaks founder and CEO stated that the company plans to make more structured products in the future, but for now these sample products demonstrate Higher Steaks initial technology to cultivate animal cells albeit at an incredibly high price of thousands of pounds per kilogram. https://cellbased.link/hff 

What We Know: Higher Steaks is one of the few cell based meat companies working with induced pluripotent stem cells to cultivate cell based meat meaning they can be expanded a lot more and can be differentiated into any type of tissue including muscle and fat for use in pork products.

Brave Robot 🤖 Ice Cream

Perfect Day is putting that $300 Million financing to work with the launch of a new brand. https://cellbased.link/crl

Through a collaboration with food CPG agency, The Urgent Company, Perfect Day will launch the first ever cell based ice cream brand under the brand name: Brave Robot

  • Brave Robot will feature animal-free dairy ice cream 
  • Brave Robot will be launching with a direct to consumer model in the California region with ice cream pints at a $5.99 price point → the company has plans to expand to national retailers over the next several months. 

South Korea's Cell Based Road Map

After an investment in BlueNalu’s Series A financing round, South Korean company Pulmuone Co. Ltd announced further collaboration with the cellular aquaculture company to address marketing, regulatory, operations and distribution with an aim to bring BlueNalu’s products to market in South Korea during the coming years. https://cellbased.link/dbz 

Multus Media, a London based company focused on developing cell culture media and growth factors for cell based meat production is launching a pilot scale product: Proliferum M — currently available for pre-order

The company, which is currently part of the IndieBio Accelerator is at its core a protein engineering company, engineering high value proteins to efficiently culture mammalian stem cells. 

I spoke with Multus Media CEO and Co-Founder, Cai Linton about the launch of Proliferum M:

  • Proliferum
[…]

Multus Media, a London based company focused on developing cell culture media and growth factors for cell based meat production is launching a pilot scale product: Proliferum M -- currently available for pre-order

The company, which is currently part of the IndieBio Accelerator is at its core a protein engineering company, engineering high value proteins to efficiently culture mammalian stem cells. 

I spoke with Multus Media CEO and Co-Founder, Cai Linton about the launch of Proliferum M:

  • Proliferum M is a serum replacement meant to be added as a supplement to a basal medium which would contain additional amino acids and nutrients. The current estimated price for the Proliferum M is $100/L → Multus Media has a long term goal to achieve $1/L price point

Multus Media Process:

  1. Protein engineering: Identifying growth factors and proportions for optimal proliferation and differentiation 
  2. Yeast Expression System: developing an engineered yeast strain to produce growth factors 
  3. Achieving Universality: serum replacements that can be used across many cell types

IntegriCulture’s 2nd CulNet Collab

IntegriCulture has another CulNet collaboration in place (following NH Foods): Shiok Meats, Singapore based cell based meat company. https://cellbased.link/culshiok 

  • Through the partnership, Shiok Meats will use Integriculture’s CulNet system and cell based media (SpaceSalt) to scale production of cell based shrimp.

  • Why We Care: This is one of the first collaborations we have seen between two cell based meat companies → Shiok Meats providing cell line and tissue engineering expertise and Integriculture providing cell culture media and proliferation expertise --- This may point to the importance of collaboration and democratization of technology rather than a strictly vertically integrated approach to make cell based meat a reality [or companies merging or buying others to achieve vertical integration].

  • Unit Economics: According to a recent article by South China Morning Post, Shiok Meats cell based shrimp currently costs: US$5,000 / 1kilogram.
    • → Goal to bring that cost down to US$50 / 1kilogram and have a product to market by 2021 (perhaps this will be achievable through collaboration with Integriculture). 

Investments

Swiss meat multinational food processor, Bell Foods Group invested $5.7 Million in Mosa Meat - increasing previous investment of 2.8M USD (2018). The new influx of capital will be used to build a pilot production facility, and advance the development and scaling of Mosa Meat technology with a goal to have a product to market in 2022. 

  • Why We Care: Bell Food Group is a strategic partner for Mosa Meat with expertise in producing and marketing meat products. Additional strategic investors include M Ventures, venture capital arm of Merck and animal nutrition company Nutreco. https://cellbased.link/y7n 

🥛 Perfect Day raised an additional $160M as an extension of the company’s 2019 Series C round now totaling $300M. The investment was led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Borad’s investment group Thematic Investing and included previous investors Temasek and Horizon Ventures. https://cellbased.link/234f 

📈 Digital cell biology company, Berkeley Lights (BLI) IPO’d on Friday --- 7.4 million shares of common stock had an initial estimated price of $16 to $18 per share (revised to $22). It closed on Friday at $65.45, up almost 200%. 

  • Berkeley Lights technology is essentially a “pre-screening” to characterize cells based on their functionality prior to further research and development. Characterizing cells with accuracy and scale, enables Berkeley Lights to develop the most efficient cellular factories for a desired therapeutic or synthetic biology product. 

  • Addressable Business Segments:
    • $6 billion in antibody therapeutics
    • $15 billion in cell therapy
    • $2 billion in synthetic biology

  • Berkeley Lights currently has collaboration agreements in place with Ginkgo Bioworks and Amyris

A new match in alternative protein investing has been made: 

Lever VC (NYC & Hong Kong) + Brinc (Hong Kong) 

What We Know: Lever VC has raised $28.3 million in capital to deploy across plant-based, cell-cultivated meat and dairy companies throughout China. According to Brinc Founder & CEO, Manav Gupta, “Lever VC will run due diligence on high-potential plant based startups. Once investments are made, Brinc will leverage its expertise in the market to support these startups to take […]

A new match in alternative protein investing has been made: 

Lever VC (NYC & Hong Kong) + Brinc (Hong Kong) 

What We Know: Lever VC has raised $28.3 million in capital to deploy across plant-based, cell-cultivated meat and dairy companies throughout China. According to Brinc Founder & CEO, Manav Gupta, “Lever VC will run due diligence on high-potential plant based startups. Once investments are made, Brinc will leverage its expertise in the market to support these startups to take advantage of opportunities in China.”

  • Strategic investors include: Venture capital arms of COFCO and Yili, national industry trade group the China Plant-Based Foods Alliance, Givaudan, Cremer, and others. https://cellbased.link/911ac 

This isn’t the first VC collab we have seen with intentions of investing in Chinese alt-protein: 

  • → New Crop Capital (NYC) + DAO Foods (China) -- investment partnership to introduce new plant-based meat and alternative protein products in China 

In other News Across Asia

South Korea: Noah Biotech, an agro biotech venture capital company and a genomics company Eone Diagnomics Genome Center (EDGC) signed a joint agreement to develop technologies for the commercial production of clean meat using 3D printing technology. https://cellbased.link/ee628 

  • The collaboration will focus on development of:
    • A technique for developing differentiation protocols for biomaterials containing muscle and fat cells from cows; 
    • A 3D printer to make a three-dimensional culture at high speed.

  • Why We Care: This is the first company in South Korea to work on cultured meat and EDGC is a Life Sciences leader in genomics providing insight into the synergies between cultured meat and the pharmaceutical, medical equipment, and reagent businesses. 

Singapore: Cell based milk company Turtle Tree Labs raised US$3.2 million in funding to accelerate production of milk from mammary gland stem cells. This news comes shortly after US company BIOMILQ raised $3.5 million to execute on the same concept of cell cultured breast milk. https://cellbased.link/bd397 

  • Turtle Tree Labs investors include Green Monday Ventures, KBW Ventures, CPT Capital, and Artesian New Luna Ventures. The  aforementioned Lever VC was a pre-seed investor in the company as well. 

  • I spoke to the team at Turtle Tree Labs to gain a bit more insight into their proprietary process:
    • Mammary stem cells are sourced from milk and “a few other sources” 
    • They enable mammary stem cells to lactate through synthesis of a custom lactation media which will not be not be purified from the proteins that are secreted by the stem cells. 
    • The end goal is for Turtle Tree to create a whole milk protein containing all proteins and compounds in breast milk. The company was unclear as to whether they have been able to achieve this lofty goal. 

Singapore: Shiok Meats raised bridge funding of $3 million ahead of a larger Series A ($15 Million) coming by the end of this year. Investors include Agronomics, US-based slaughter-free investment firm VegInvest, London angel fund Impact Venture and UAE’s female-led Mindshift Capital Fund. https://cellbased.link/9d1fc 

BlueNalu is putting their recent Series A funding of $20 million to work through the expansion of its pilot facility in San Diego and the expansion of its team (plans to double the company staff to ~50 team members). https://cellbased.link/at7 

What We Know: 

  • BlueNalu’s pilot facility will feature various bioreactors ranging in sizes from 10 to 2,000 liters 
  • BlueNalu will manufacture equipment that combine processes from 3D bioprinting and food extrusion. 
  • The new facility will have cell cultures
[…]

BlueNalu is putting their recent Series A funding of $20 million to work through the expansion of its pilot facility in San Diego and the expansion of its team (plans to double the company staff to ~50 team members). https://cellbased.link/at7 

What We Know: 

  • BlueNalu’s pilot facility will feature various bioreactors ranging in sizes from 10 to 2,000 liters 
  • BlueNalu will manufacture equipment that combine processes from 3D bioprinting and food extrusion. 
  • The new facility will have cell cultures from R&D scale up to 2000 liters
  • BlueNalu will produce seafood products for a test market

Too Soon to Tell: BlueNalu has yet to confirm how many lbs of meat scaling to 2,000 liters would yield and what the price point would be at this capacity.

Investments

Protein engineering company Codexis, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDXS) and Molecular Assemblies, Inc., announced a partnership through which Codexis will purchase $1 million in Series A preferred stock of Molecular Assemblies. The two companies will work together to leverage the Codexis CodeEvolver® protein engineering platform to develop custom designed enzymes for DNA synthesis. https://cellbased.link/zfe 

Background: DNA Synthesis has historically been done through chemical processing. Molecular Assemblies is working on synthesizing DNA enzymatically, which enables longer gene lengths and higher accuracy as opposed to chemical synthesis (requires harsh solvents and cannot stitch longer gene lengths).

Why We Care: The possibilities to create larger amounts of high-quality DNA enables more advancements in synthetic biology innovations in agriculture, textiles and material sectors. The market for traditional chemical DNA synthesis today is about $2 billion annually (enzymatically synthesized DNA is not yet on the market, https://cellbased.link/vt4)

Advancements 

This week, Impossible Foods reached a new milestone with the launch of an Impossible Breakfast Sandwich at Starbucks internationally and at most U.S. locations. 

  • According to an interview with CNBC, Impossible Foods CEO, Pat Brown stated the Starbucks deal is by far the biggest launch for the company thus far (bigger than Burger King!). 

Regulation

The Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry is working towards a legislation strategy for the next generation sources of protein, including alternative and cultured meat, algae and insects. https://cellbased.link/2nm 

  • In July, the government and the private sector will set up a council to study how to label products sold at supermarkets and other retail outlets and how to standardize the specifications.

source:bit.bio

OPTi-OX, the technology out of Cambridge University spin out company, Bit Bio (founded by Dr. Mark Kotter), enables the reprogramming of any type of stem cell to become a more specialized cell type such as those in the liver, brain or immune system. OPTi-OX is MAKING MOVES:

  • Dutch cell based meat company, Meatable, licenses OPTi-OX for reprogramming animal cells and just raised an additional $6,756,300 as part of a Seed 2 financing round. Agronomics [ANIC] co-led
[…]

source:bit.bio

OPTi-OX, the technology out of Cambridge University spin out company, Bit Bio (founded by Dr. Mark Kotter), enables the reprogramming of any type of stem cell to become a more specialized cell type such as those in the liver, brain or immune system. OPTi-OX is MAKING MOVES:

  • Dutch cell based meat company, Meatable, licenses OPTi-OX for reprogramming animal cells and just raised an additional $6,756,300 as part of a Seed 2 financing round. Agronomics [ANIC] co-led the round with an investment of $1.1 million. Additional investors are undisclosed at this time. https://cellbased.link/nvj 

  • Bit Bio, the owner of OPTi-OX, raised an impressive $41.5 million in a Series A funding round to commercialize OPTi-OX for reprogramming human cells for use in research, drug discovery, and cell therapy. The Series A round was led by life sciences investors, Rick Klausner, Bob Nelsen, and Jim Tananbaum with additional investors including Foresite Capital, Blueyard Capital and Arch Venture Partners. https://cellbased.link/rq9 

Cultured Breast Milk

North Carolina based BIOMILQ raised $3.5M to bring cultured breast milk to market. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Blue Horizon Ventures, Purple Orange Ventures, and famed entrepreneur Shazi Visram (founder of Happy Family Brands) https://cellbased.link/vrg 

How it works: By culturing mammary epithelial cells, BIOMILQ is able to stimulate the cells to produce breast milk compounds including human casein and lactose. 

Why We Care: BIOMILQ’s technology is unique in its ability to streamline downstream processing by eliminating the need for purification or separation of desired compounds and media components --- a major bottleneck to scaling fermentation or other cell based systems. 

Bühler x Big Idea Ventures

Swiss food multinational, Bühler joins the roster of strategic investors (Tyson Ventures + Temasek) backing Big Idea Ventures, New Protein Fund --- a global venture accelerator investing in early stage plant based and cell based companies. 

Background: Bühler has an extensive background in processing plant based proteins and has been accelerating various processing technologies for the production of plant analogs through:

  1. A joint partnership with Givaudan to create an extrusion and processing facility for novel plant based food products based in Givaudan Woodlands site in Singapore;
  2. The Food Application Center in Minneapolis [LINK]. 

Start-ups at Big Idea Ventures (which operates in New York and Singapore) will be able to benefit from Bühler’s manufacturing facilities and extensive food processing knowledge.


If you're interested in learning more about OPTi-OX and Bit Bio, check out this interview with Dr. Mark Kotter: https://cellbased.link/x2u

source:MeaTech

Israeli 3D bioprinting cell based meat company, MeaTech, is making progress towards a Nasdaq listinghttps://cellbased.link/f4397 

What We Know: The company, currently listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: MEAT)  completed a private financing round of USD $5.7 million. Investors include Rami Levy (through a private company), Israeli meat importer Adom, and institutional investors including Mor Investments, Psagot, Clal, and Meitav. 

[…]

source:MeaTech

Israeli 3D bioprinting cell based meat company, MeaTech, is making progress towards a Nasdaq listinghttps://cellbased.link/f4397 

What We Know: The company, currently listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE: MEAT)  completed a private financing round of USD $5.7 million. Investors include Rami Levy (through a private company), Israeli meat importer Adom, and institutional investors including Mor Investments, Psagot, Clal, and Meitav. 

  • According to a GLOBES article, MeaTech said that the new funds will enable the company to list on Nasdaq. 

Integriculture Series A

Integriculture, the cell based meat company out of Japan, completed a $7.4 million Series A financing. The round was led by Beyond Next Ventures with additional investment from AgFunder, Hiroshima Venture Capital, NH Foods, Real Tech Fund, and VU Venture Partners, Caygan Capital‘s CEO Naruhisa Nakagawa. https://cellbased.link/45y 

Background: Last month, I shared the launch of Integriculture’s CulNet Pipeline, an effort to engage cell based meat suppliers across the supply chain (cell line development, cell culture media development, tissue engineering, bioreactor scale up) to work with Integriculture to accelerate cell based meat’s time to market. 

  • The pipeline incorporates Integriculture’s own proprietary CulNet system: The CulNet System claims to enable the culture of animal cells of any type and species - terrestrial, aquatic and avian through the co-culturing of cell types that work simultaneously to address issues such as toxin build up and growth factor/media recycling. 

Horizontal Integration: Integriculture is positioning itself as a cellular agriculture technology input company including a flavored cell culture medium (SpaceSalt™) and cell proliferation technology (CulNet System). According to a company press release, Integriculture also has goals to launch their own products as off shoots of their tech platform including: 

  • 2021: Cosmetics product based on cultured serum, by direct-to-consumer model
  • 2021: Cell-based foie gras 
  • 2023: Cell-based processed meat 
  • 2025: Cell-based steak

Genome-Scale Metabolic Modeling

Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State published a perspective on the application of genome-scale metabolic modeling as a tool for cell based meat production. https://cellbased.link/kdd 

What This Means: Genome-Scale Metabolic Models represent the quantitative relationships within an organism that can be used to determine optimal conditions for cell growth, which could be primarily useful for media formulation analysis; Other types of computational models are being worked on to address bottlenecks in cell proliferation. 

→ I spoke with Dr. Simon Kahan, founder of the Cultivated Meat Modeling Consortium:

  • Dr. Kahan told me his modeling work is currently focused on how the flow of the fluids inside of the bioreactor affects the individual cells mechanically to determine what facilitates proliferation once you already have an initial set of input requirements including cell type, media formulation, adhesion forces, cell death rate, and cell growth rate.

The model can test variables inside of the bioreactor including: 

  • Rotor speed & rotor shape
  • How and when to add microcarriers during cell proliferation
  • Oxygen injected into system
  • How often to change media

Bottom Line: Models could be particularly useful for cell based meat scientists who have developed a prototype and have a specific set of rules to put into a computer model and now want to build on this prototype to predict what will happen at a larger scale. The end goal is optimization to make the product cheaper, faster, and with desired specifications such as moisture retention or increased fat content. 

source:thermofisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) a global leader in life sciences, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and services has entered the cell based meat space. https://cellbased.link/ddp 

It was just a matter of time before this legacy brand offered up their expertise in a wide range of biological technology fields including hardware and lab equipment with more specific tools including:

  • Cell Culture Media: Thermo is a leading supplier of cell culture media including
[…]

source:thermofisher

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) a global leader in life sciences, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and services has entered the cell based meat space. https://cellbased.link/ddp 

It was just a matter of time before this legacy brand offered up their expertise in a wide range of biological technology fields including hardware and lab equipment with more specific tools including:

  • Cell Culture Media: Thermo is a leading supplier of cell culture media including specialty formulas for embryonic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells. 
  • Growth Factors: Thermo has a line of growth factors designed for cell proliferation and differentiation.
  • 3D Cell Culture: Thermo offers a wide range of products for culturing cells in three dimensional shapes including extracellular matrices, and scaffolds like collagen gels, Fibronectin protein, Laminin protein, Poly-D-Lysine.

From the lab to plate: These products were not designed for mass production of food. While Thermo Fisher has a head start in working with mammalian cells, the formulas will need significant optimization to scale up at the costs required for cell based food production. 

Legacy Life Sciences: Thermo Fisher Scientific is not the first life sciences company we have seen eyeing cell based meat

  • German company, Merck KGaA, is also looking to leverage its cell biology expertise to accelerate cell based meat production (they have invested in cell based meat company Lab Farm Foods through an accelerator program) https://cellbased.link/hvs 
  • 3M is currently working with cellular agriculture (the exact companies remain confidential) to address a wide range of needs including membrane filtration and purification, efficient cell culture media recycling, scaffolding solutions, and food safety instrumentation.

Investments

CUBIQ FOODS, the Barcelona based company developing  omega-3 fats raised €5 million ($5.4 million) from Blue Horizon Ventures and Moira Capital Partners. This brings CUBIQ FOODS total funding to $10M. https://cellbased.link/8j3 

CUBIQ FOODS has two product lines set to launch by the end of 2020 --- neither of which are actually cell based...

  1. Vegan Smart Fat: An oil/water emulsion made with vegetable oils. THe product is designed to be low calorie and low in saturated fats, while providing juiciness to products like plant based meat analogs. 
  2. Micro03 : High DHA Algae oil product with a unique microencapsulation approach to incorporate the omega-3 in a variety of products. 

Plant Based Pivot: According to CUBIQ FOODS CEO, Andrés Montefeltro, a cell based product that incorporates cultured animal cells will be a third product that is currently under lab and pilot scale. This cell based product will replace or complement the algae oil with omega-3 in the future. 

source:integriculture

Japanese cell based meat and technology company, IntegriCulture announced the launch of their production platform: CulNet System. https://integriculture.jp/news/337/

Let me [try to] break it down for you 💃🏻:

  • IntegriCulture is looking to implement 1-5 year production/scale up partnerships with companies interested in developing a variety of cell based products including food, fur, supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals based on a monthly R&D fee model. 

Currently, Japanese food conglomerate NH Foods (NipponHam) is working with IntegriCulture to culture bovine […]

source:integriculture

Japanese cell based meat and technology company, IntegriCulture announced the launch of their production platform: CulNet System. https://integriculture.jp/news/337/

Let me [try to] break it down for you 💃🏻:

  • IntegriCulture is looking to implement 1-5 year production/scale up partnerships with companies interested in developing a variety of cell based products including food, fur, supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals based on a monthly R&D fee model. 

Currently, Japanese food conglomerate NH Foods (NipponHam) is working with IntegriCulture to culture bovine cells through this model. 

In the same announcement, IntegriCulture is seeking to build a “CulNet Consortium”. Wait, what does that mean? They’re calling on biotech industry partners to pay $37k/year to become a member and help expedite the development of the entire cellular agriculture supply chain including culture medium, bioreactor, bioprocess, quality management, and product processing. 

Inside the Technology: The CulNet System claims to enable the culture of animal cells of any type and species - terrestrial, aquatic and avian.

I give my best lengthy description of IntegriCulture’s CulNet technology at the end of the Weekly Report. 

Advancements

Cannabis company Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) reported 2020 1st Quarter earnings on May 8th disclosing completion of successful fermentation of CBGA in a yeast strain engineered through a licensing partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks. 

Why We Care: CRON CEO, Mike Gorenstein noted three main benefits to this technology:

  1. More cost competitive derivative products which include non-dried-flower marijuana products, such as edibles, nonalcoholic infused beverages, vapes, topicals, and concentrates
  2. More consistent products on par with standards expected from traditional consumer packaged goods companies
  3. Capability to leverage rare cannabinoids to provide differentiated products

Commercialization Timeline: A September 2021 timeline was disclosed as being the target for commercializing a portfolio of cannabinoids through fermentation → prior to that time CRON will focus on optimizing scale up procedures and downstream processing. 

Bottom Line: The fermented cannabinoids are completely fungible to anything other than flowers with the above noted benefits enabling supply chain and product consistency. https://cellbased.link/985 

UPDATE

Last month, I reported on the Moderna ($MRNA) & Ginkgo collaboration on the development of a vaccine candidate for COVID-19. This week, Moderna received a fast track designation from the FDA allowing Moderna to proceed to a Phase 2 study beginning shortly with preparation for phase 3 early summer of 2020. 

REGULATION

Background: In November 2018, the FDA and USDA announced that they planned to jointly oversee the production of cell-cultured meat derived from livestock and poultry, and catfish:

  • FDA oversees cell collection and growth 
  • USDA oversees the later stages of production and labeling

Update: Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report reviewing federal oversight of cell based meat and provided recommendations to the FDA and USDA to incorporate leading practices for interagency collaboration. https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/706769.pdf

What this Means: The recommendations are an effort prompted by cell-cultured meat firms (specific firms undisclosed) to curb potential fragmentation or overlap in oversight of cell-cultured meat and prevent burdensome requirements that may create an uneven playing field with the conventional meat industry.

Back to IntegriCulture

IntegriCulture’s CulNet System is a bioreactor system that works by “co-culturing” cell types that have a biologically symbiotic relationship. https://cellbased.link/2ei 

  • Example: Avian muscle and fat cells in one bioreactor + organ cells in a separate bioreactor → bioreactors are connected to form a closed loop where culture medium circulates like the bloodstream and the cells work together to grow.

Culturing the desired cell type (muscle + fat) with organ cells mimics an animal's own internal endocrine system by replicating the interaction between organ networks. This integrated system improves cell proliferation and cell density and removes the need to add serum or growth factors. 

MIND CELL CONTROL: CulNet enables the control of cells, by changing the combination of organ cells meaning the ability to enhance cell size and differentiation to desired cell types. 

FOOD GRADE MEDIUM ONLY: Cells in CulNet are able to proliferate and differentiate using cell culture mediums composed of substances already approved for use in food. 

BOTTOM LINE: This technology effectively removes the need for immortalized cells, iPSC, or growth factors… 

Here’s the PDF IntegriCulture published: https://integriculture.jp/assets/pdf/product/CulNet_en.pdf

-----

Thanks for reading! 
- Brooke Sunness

Israeli cell based meat company Aleph Farms and engineering and infrastructure company, Black & Veatech (B&V) NextGen Ag announced a strategic partnership. https://cellbased.link/64k

  • Under Wraps: Most of the details surrounding the partnership are confidential including what phase of development the project is in.
  • What We Do Know: B&V NextGen Ag is providing engineering consulting services to Aleph Farms to help overcome process scale-up and sustainability goals, which are — eliminating emissions associated with its meat production by
[…]

Israeli cell based meat company Aleph Farms and engineering and infrastructure company, Black & Veatech (B&V) NextGen Ag announced a strategic partnership. https://cellbased.link/64k

  • Under Wraps: Most of the details surrounding the partnership are confidential including what phase of development the project is in.
  • What We Do Know: B&V NextGen Ag is providing engineering consulting services to Aleph Farms to help overcome process scale-up and sustainability goals, which are --- eliminating emissions associated with its meat production by 2025 and reach the same net-zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2030.
  • Why We Care: Aleph Farms technology enables the ability to  “co-culture” cell types including muscle fibers, fat, connective tissue, and blood vessels which are integral to developing a thick and structured tissue (like a steak). Connective tissue has a critical role in tissue engineering as it provides the vascularized system for cells to survive. It is possible that without a blood vessel network, cells will not be able to replicate and form considerable amounts of muscle fibers in vitro. 

Investments

Pivot Bio completed a $100 Million Series C funding round to ramp up production of engineered microbes that fix nitrogen into the soil. https://cellbased.link/lko 

  • Why Fix Nitrogen? Plants need nitrogen to grow. Crops like corn and wheat suck nitrogen out of the soil. The traditional approach has been to use synthetic fertilizers to maintain the monoculture grow cycle. 

  • Pivot Bio is seeking a share of the $65 billion market with a disruptive technology that replaces the need for synthetic fertilizers with microbes that have been genetically programmed to fix nitrogen. 

Available Now!

🍧 It did not take long for cell based milk company, Perfect Day to put their highly coveted GRAS certification to work 

  • Through a partnership with San Francisco based Smitten Ice Cream you can now purchase “N’Ice” cream made with Perfect Day non-animal whey protein. 
  • At $12/pint this is only $1 more than Smitten Ice cream regular dairy pints → this is luxe ice cream we are talking about! 

  • What We Know: The product is being marketed as vegan & lactose free and Smitten refers to the N’Ice cream as being made with “Perfect Day™ clean-label base.”
  • Head scratching emoji: Do consumers understand what non-animal whey protein, clean label base means? 

🍄 Researchers at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability in Denmark, published a study demonstrating the viability of engineering a metabolic pathway for the expression of psilocybin in yeast → fed batch fermentation was carried out using glucose feedstock. https://cellbased.link/g4h 

  • The final titer of psilocybin from the researchers top producing strain: 140mg/L
  • Further engineering will be required to improve on the efficiency of the metabolic pathway
  • Researchers also discovered the ability to produce a host of natural and new-to-nature
[…]

🍄 Researchers at The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability in Denmark, published a study demonstrating the viability of engineering a metabolic pathway for the expression of psilocybin in yeast → fed batch fermentation was carried out using glucose feedstock. https://cellbased.link/g4h 

  • The final titer of psilocybin from the researchers top producing strain: 140mg/L
  • Further engineering will be required to improve on the efficiency of the metabolic pathway
  • Researchers also discovered the ability to produce a host of natural and new-to-nature tryptamine derivatives, chemicals that have known interactions with serotonin receptors

Magic Mushrooms made biotech news last October when University of Miami Ohio scientists cultivated 1.16 grams of psilocybin per liter

  • Important Caveat: University of Miami Ohio researchers incorporated some important supplements into the fermentation media perhaps to increase yield, but may prove to be too costly. 

Publicity

🍔 In a Live Virtual Press Conference, Impossible Foods announced the roll out of Impossible Burger into 777 additional retail outlets making the products now available in around 1,000 retail stores in total including:

  • Safeway (NorCal), Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions (SoCal), and Jewel-Osco (Chicago), Wegmans in eastern seaboard and Fairway markets in NYC region

  • Why We Care: Major meatpacking plants including Tyson, JBS, Smithfield have been shuttered amidst COVID-19 related shutdowns. Impossible CEO, Pat Brown stated during the press conference, that Impossible production plants are more automated and less crowded than traditional meat packaging facilities -- impeccable timing for the company to step in where traditional meat may quite literally be falling short.

Advancements

🆓 Cell [FREE] Based Tech advancements emerging out of Northwestern Center for Synthetic Biology:

  • Specifically, scientist Michael Jewett and his team of researchers have developed a platform for engineering ribosomes to make new types of polymers by isolating the ribosomes outside of the cells. https://cellbased.link/7ta 

  • Background: Engineering living organisms (yeast, algae, e coli) comes with constraints including the cells evolutionary drive to grow rather than singularly focus on the biosynthesis of target products. https://cellbased.link/eu5 

  • Bottom line: By removing the cells, Jewett and his team of researchers “provide an unprecedented and otherwise unattainable freedom of design to modify and control biological systems”.
  • All this said, it’s interesting to see an alternative engineering approach!

Microbial Engineering company, Ginkgo Bioworks announced it will be contributing its microbial discovery, production, and fermentation platform infrastructure to Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) to continue the development of a vaccine candidate for COVID-19. https://cellbased.link/efd3c

  • Why We Care: Moderna’s mRNA technology is a new approach to medicine that uses synthetic biology to program mRNA to trigger cells to generate proteins that could protect against COVID-19. Rather than creating a vaccine that is developed from the weakened virus, the mRNA
[…]

Microbial Engineering company, Ginkgo Bioworks announced it will be contributing its microbial discovery, production, and fermentation platform infrastructure to Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) to continue the development of a vaccine candidate for COVID-19. https://cellbased.link/efd3c

  • Why We Care: Moderna’s mRNA technology is a new approach to medicine that uses synthetic biology to program mRNA to trigger cells to generate proteins that could protect against COVID-19. Rather than creating a vaccine that is developed from the weakened virus, the mRNA triggers coronavirus-like proteins to develop intracellularly, which will enable our bodies to strengthen against the real virus. The main advantage of this approach is speed -- enabling faster discovery and faster manufacturing
  • More on Moderna clinical trials here

Advancements

3️⃣ Cellular fermentation company, Geltor, has announced the release of its third portfolio product.

  • → Elastapure™: a bioidentical human elastin protein, a protein that, as its name suggests, supports skin elasticity. Elastapure™ is designed for topical skin care. https://cellbased.link/627c7 

  • This is the latest in Geltor’s product portfolio which also includes 
    • Collume™ (2018): animal free marine collagen 
    • HumaColl21™ (2019): a bioidentical human collagen protein

  • Bottom Line: Geltor’s rapid expansion of collagen and elastin product lines are proof of an efficient technology and a scale up platform focused on “bio-advantaged” high value complex proteins. 

🥛 Perfect Day, the company using precision fermentation to produce milk proteins, specifically, β-Lactoglobulin received a no questions/objections letter from the FDA regarding their Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) certification.

What This Means: The β-Lactoglobulin produced from fermentation by the engineered strain of fungus trichoderma reesei is found to be safe for consumption by humans of all ages. https://cellbased.link/ob6

  • According to the FDA letter, “ Perfect Day concludes that protein characterization data show that the sequence of - lactoglobulin produced by fermentation is identical to commercially available bovine produced -lactoglobulin.”

Acquisitions

Dutch chemical and biological sciences company, DSM completed the strategic acquisition of Glycom (Denmark), a global supplier of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMO) for ~830 million USD. https://cellbased.link/8jo

  • Background: HMOs are complex carbohydrates that make up human breast milk. Through metabolic engineering of yeast cells, Gycom is able to ferment these carbohydrates at scale. 

  • → DSM plans to increase HMO production and improve cost by applying the company’s advanced biotech competences for strain improvement. https://cellbased.link/ca01a

  • Wait, there’s more: DSM’s expertise in precision fermentation is focused on simple sugars and complex carbohydrates rather than complex amino acids/proteins i.e. collagen or β-Lactoglobulin. 

  • DSM also has a joint venture with Cargill for the production of Reb M + D stevia sweetener.
  • Glycom reported 2019 sales of 74 million euros predominantly generated through a long term contract with Nestle 
  • DSM has a robust network to expand these sales strongly for 2021

Researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Aleph Farms published research findings in Nature Food, regarding the use of textured soy protein as cell based meat scaffolding. https://cellbased.link/cm9 

What They Found: Textured soy protein, a common and inexpensive byproduct of soybean oil, was proven to successfully support the growth of bovine stem cells.

  • Great Potential: the porous/sponge like structure of textured soy protein enables cell adhesion, growth, spread, and maturation because the pores
[…]

Researchers from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Aleph Farms published research findings in Nature Food, regarding the use of textured soy protein as cell based meat scaffolding. https://cellbased.link/cm9 

What They Found: Textured soy protein, a common and inexpensive byproduct of soybean oil, was proven to successfully support the growth of bovine stem cells.

  • Great Potential: the porous/sponge like structure of textured soy protein enables cell adhesion, growth, spread, and maturation because the pores facilitate nutritional and oxygen flow
  • Taste: three volunteers tasted the cell based meat and noted the products had a meaty flavor and texture

Next Steps: Textured soy protein still needs to be optimized to improve upon the structural and mechanical properties to more closely mimic connective tissues.

Bottom Line: Plant based scaffolds like textured soy protein could provide an inexpensive and nutritionally sound structural component for cell based meat. 

Advancements

🧪 Swiss microbial engineering company, Evolva has entered into a strategic partnership with flavor and fragrance nutrition company International Flavors and Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) to commercialize vanillin synthesized through precision fermentation. https://cellbased.link/25o 

  • According to the IFF company press release, “Evolva will receive payments for the product manufactured and sold, contributing to reach cash break-even by 2023.”  
  • Why We Care: Because of the cost and supply chain variability of natural vanilla, most products that want to use vanilla extract use synthetic vanillin made primarily from petrochemicals or chemically derived from lignin (wood pulp). Evolva’s vanillin product is fermentation-derived; a natural product and does not contain any petrochemicals. 

More Flavor + Fragrance 👅👃

Microbial fermentation company Conagen received a $30 million strategic investment from Japan based chemical company Sumitomo Chemical to accelerate Conangen’s research and development in products derived from its synthetic biology platforms. https://cellbased.link/ku9

  • Conagen has a vertically integrated platform for microbial strain development, scale up and bio-manufacturing. Sumitomo Chemical offers platform technologies such as downstream processes and safety assessment technologies.
  • Sumitomo Chemical’s partnership proves market viability in terms of price parity for Conagen’s products, which includes a wide range of molecules from lactoferrin protein (a compound found in breast milk) to lipids such as gamma-decalactone, a plant based fat that provides creamy notes to foods and fragrances. 

CEO Thomas Jonas inside the Chicago production facility

Chicago based Sustainable Bioproducts, the company making animal-free protein from microbes, changed their company name and also raised $80 million in a Series B round. https://cellbased.link/t3y

  • New Name: Nature’s Fynd (pronounced find)
  • Series B Investors: Generation Investment Management (chairman is Al Gore) and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (funders include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg). ADM (Chicago-based ingredients giant), and Danone (French dairy company). 
  • New Manufacturing Facility: 35,000
[…]

CEO Thomas Jonas inside the Chicago production facility

Chicago based Sustainable Bioproducts, the company making animal-free protein from microbes, changed their company name and also raised $80 million in a Series B round. https://cellbased.link/t3y

  • New Name: Nature’s Fynd (pronounced find)
  • Series B Investors: Generation Investment Management (chairman is Al Gore) and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (funders include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg). ADM (Chicago-based ingredients giant), and Danone (French dairy company). 
  • New Manufacturing Facility: 35,000 square foot facility located on the site of the historic Union Stockyards in Chicago’s South Side. 

The fermented microbes (sourced from Yellowstone National Park) are said to be a versatile ingredient that can be transformed into a variety of products from plant based chicken nuggets to chocolate mousse and Nature’s Fynd plans to commercialize food and beverage products across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack occasions.

For those of you who watched the Season 3 premiere of HBO sci-fi show, Westworld last Sunday you may have noticed the show featured a “butcher”plant of the future.

This particular depiction demonstrates slabs of meat connected to tubes of blood, which is not exactly how lab grown meat companies have explained the science of it working.


Amidst the market annihilation there was a surprisingly significant amount of capital deployed to food + biotech companies this week. Perhaps the COVID-19 […]

For those of you who watched the Season 3 premiere of HBO sci-fi show, Westworld last Sunday you may have noticed the show featured a “butcher”plant of the future.

This particular depiction demonstrates slabs of meat connected to tubes of blood, which is not exactly how lab grown meat companies have explained the science of it working.


Amidst the market annihilation there was a surprisingly significant amount of capital deployed to food + biotech companies this week. Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic is shedding some light on the importance of alternate food production methods for public health of the planet and the people.

Kicking it off

🍔 Impossible Foods raised an additional $500 million Series F financing bringing the company’s total funding soaring to $1.3 billion. The round was led by a new investor in the company, Mirae Asset Global Investments, a South Korean investment firm. https://cellbased.link/88e4e

  • What this means: Impossible stated the $500 million will primarily be used to accelerate manufacturing scaleup and expansion into international markets, ahem, Asia, while continuing to develop products for these new markets i.e. plant based pork. 
  • Star 🤩 Studded: Additional investors include an impressive round up of celebs including Jay Brown, Common, Kirk Cousins, Paul George, Peter Jackson, Jay-Z, Mindy Kaling, Trevor Noah, Alexis Ohanian, Kal Penn, Katy Perry, Questlove, Ruby Rose, Phil Rosenthal, Jaden Smith, Serena Williams, will.i.am, and Zedd.

💸 Agronomics, the cellular agriculture investment firm, announced a subscription of $500,000 in GALY CO. for an approximate 4.37% stake. https://cellbased.link/d5y

  • GALY Co. is developing cell cultured cotton. Using cotton plant cells, GALY can develop cotton at a faster pace then from traditional agriculture methods and uses less water, land and gas emissions. https://cellbased.link/2ld

Advancements

German based chemical company, Evonik (OTCMKTS: EVKIF) announced a major breakthrough in the production of collagen made from precision fermentation. https://cellbased.link/512

  • Evonik has developed a recombinant technology platform to synthesize animal free collagen at commercial scale. 

Why We Care: Collagen applications can range from bio-fabricated materials to scaffolding for cultured meat. Evonik has the infrastructure and scale-up capabilities for a microbial fermentation production network with six fermentation sites across Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Currently the other company operating in the recombinant collagen space is Geltor.


Invite friends to learn about Cell Based (aka Lab Grown) Meat and Food, just click the link below to share on your LinkedIn:

Life Sciences company, 3M (NYSE: MMM), has been increasing their involvement in Agri-Food Tech market development to provide solutions for cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies.

  • This initiative falls under a 3M principle called “15% rule” through which employees can spend 15% of their work time on experimental projects that could lead to new products.
  • I spoke with Don Davidson, who is working closely with cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies to address a wide range of
[…]

Life Sciences company, 3M (NYSE: MMM), has been increasing their involvement in Agri-Food Tech market development to provide solutions for cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies.

  • This initiative falls under a 3M principle called “15% rule” through which employees can spend 15% of their work time on experimental projects that could lead to new products.
  • I spoke with Don Davidson, who is working closely with cellular agriculture and precision fermentation companies to address a wide range of needs including:
    • Membrane filtration and purification
    • Efficient cell culture media recycling
    • Scaffolding solutions - tissue structure of the proteins
    • Food safety instrumentation
    • Packaging - novel packaging incorporating materials such as plant fibers in manufacturing processes
  • Don told me the initiative is completely customer driven with technological adaptations made to suit specific company needs.

Investments

🍞 C16 Biosciences, the company using cellular fermentation to produce palm oil has completed a $20 million Series A funding round. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Waldencast and Future Tech Labs, Y Combinator, DCVC, Sound Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Liquid 2 Ventures. https://cellbased.link/ej3

  • C16 Biosciences is going after a $61 billion global industry
  • Palm oil is used in everything from soaps, shampoos and makeup to packaged foods like bread, ice cream, peanut butter and cookies
  • The capital infusion will be used to scale technology and prepare for a commercial launch starting with personal care products at the end of 2020 (this launch date was given to me by CEO Shara Ticku when we spoke last year).

🧬 Culture Biosciences completed a Series A round of $15M. The round was led by Cultivian Sandbox Ventures with additional investment from The Production Board, Verily Life Sciences, Section 32, Y Combinator, and E14 Fund. https://go.culturebiosciences.com/series-a-press-release

  • Landscape: Culture Biosciences works with precision fermentation companies to accelerate bench-scale fermentation experiments by providing a testing ground to run experiments. Their service addresses a major bottleneck for precision fermentation companies as traditional lab experiments may take 6-18 months, Culture Biosciences experiments can take less than 1 month.
  • Some of Culture Biosciences Clients:
    • Geltor
    • Clara Foods
    • C16 Biosciences
    • Modern Meadow
  • Why We Care: Culture Biosciences services are enabling the rapid expansion of the US bio based manufacturing revolution that will touch industries from food/agriculture, cosmetics, textiles, diagnostics, therapeutics and more.

Cellular aquaculture company BlueNalu closed a $20 million Series A financing round. The round was co-led by previous BlueNalu investors Stray Dog Capital, CPT Capital, Clear Current Capital and included some notable new strategic investors from the food and agriculture industry: 

  • Nutreco: Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company. In January, Nutreco announced a strategic partnership with BlueNalu to assist in optimization and input sourcing for BlueNalu’s proprietary growth media.  
  • Griffith Foods: a global product development partner with expertise
[…]

Cellular aquaculture company BlueNalu closed a $20 million Series A financing round. The round was co-led by previous BlueNalu investors Stray Dog Capital, CPT Capital, Clear Current Capital and included some notable new strategic investors from the food and agriculture industry: 

  • Nutreco: Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company. In January, Nutreco announced a strategic partnership with BlueNalu to assist in optimization and input sourcing for BlueNalu’s proprietary growth media.  
  • Griffith Foods: a global product development partner with expertise in sensory tasting.
  • Pulmuone: a leading natural products manufacturer with distribution in Asia and North America
  • Sumitomo Corporation of Americas: a global investor and supplier of metal products, mineral resources, and foods. 
  • Rich Products Ventures: the Corporate Venture arm of Rich Products Corporation, a supplier of icing, cakes, pizza, desserts, appetizers and various bakery products with a growing line of brands in the value-added seafood category.

Background: At the end of 2019, BlueNalu completed a product demo of a whole muscle portion of yellowtail amberjack fish. The company is now ready to focus on increasing production volume and launching the products into a test market within the next two years. The new capital will fund the build out of a pilot production facility in San Diego. https://cellbased.link/io2 

Advancements

👩‍🏫 I recently learned about NextGen Agriculture, an initiative within global engineering company Black & Veatch:

  • Through the NextGen Agriculture initiative, Black & Veatch is providing scale up services, pilot facility designs, and feasibility analyses for cellular agriculture companies. 

Kim Lovan co-founded the initiative in 2017 and informed me that she has seen an increase in customers over the last year. 

Bottom Line: Black & Veatch expertise in scaling oil and gas infrastructure translates to the industrial scaling of cellular agriculture, which involves a front end loaded process to prove technology at specific costs. Black & Veatch is the first global engineering company I’m seeing putting industry experience to work in the cellular agriculture space. 

🇫🇷 In France, a group of industry professionals formed Agriculture Cellulaire France:

Goal: position France as a leader in the cellular agriculture sector and maintain competitiveness within the food industry. https://cellbased.link/t7f

Landscape: Currently, France has one cellular agriculture company, Gourmey, developing cultured foie gras.

Boulder, Colorado based precision fermentation company, DMC Biotechnologies, successfully produced its lead product, L-alanine at pilot scale — demonstrating an important step towards full commercialization — set to happen later this year. https://cellbased.link/rxw 

  • L-alanine is a non-essential amino acid used in human nutrition (sports nutrition, wellness), cosmetics (as a dermal hydrating agent) and medical grade food. 

Background: DMC’s technology uses metabolic engineering and cellular fermentation to reduce the cost of making chemicals, such as ingredients for animal feed […]

Boulder, Colorado based precision fermentation company, DMC Biotechnologies, successfully produced its lead product, L-alanine at pilot scale -- demonstrating an important step towards full commercialization -- set to happen later this year. https://cellbased.link/rxw 

  • L-alanine is a non-essential amino acid used in human nutrition (sports nutrition, wellness), cosmetics (as a dermal hydrating agent) and medical grade food. 

Background: DMC’s technology uses metabolic engineering and cellular fermentation to reduce the cost of making chemicals, such as ingredients for animal feed or human nutrition or functional additives for cosmetics. 

Bottom Line: DMC Biotechnologies is developing specialty chemicals to replace products currently being made by extraction from agricultural residues; where DMC’s technology can significantly reduce the price. A DMC spokesperson informed me: the first product family will be amino acids for food and feed and is scheduled to be available by the end of 2020. 

Advancements

👏 Boston based Life Sciences company, Kerafast Inc., which supplies cell lines, antibodies, small molecules, and other products announced a partnership with The Good Food Institute. https://cellbased.link/unq 

  • Partnership Details: Through the partnership, Kerafast will develop terrestrial meat and aquatic cell lines to be used for research and development of cell based meat and fish that can easily be ordered through the Kerafast catalog.
  • Why We Care: According to the press release, access to validated cell lines could remove a major bottleneck in research progress for cultivated meat. 

👏 Cell based meat company, Aleph Farms announced the opening of a public visitor center to showcase a transparent view on Aleph Farms production processes. https://cellbased.link/s0g 

👏 Biomilq, a new startup making cell cultured human breast milk, successfully produced predominant breast milk protein and sugar components using human mammary cells isolated outside of the body

  • What This Means: Biomilq’s technology isolates human mammary cells and enables these cells to lactate. The result? “The full constellation of complex components in perfect proportion,” stated in a company Medium article. https://cellbased.link/k9v 

Lab Grown Foods (Non-Meat)

Lab grown foods (non-meat) are made through a process called precision fermentation. We've put together some imagery to help describe the process.

Invite friends and family to our quick breakdown: What is lab grown milk, eggs, heme and gelatin?

Events

Industrializing Cell-Based Meats Summit (2nd Year)
March 24-26, 2020
San Francisco, CA, USA

Another pure play cell based meat investment is now available, accessible on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. 

  • MeaTech (TLV: METC), based in Israel completed a reverse merger with Ophectra Real Estate, listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.

Background: MeaTech is developing a 3D stem cell printing technology for cell based meat production. The company’s founder and CEO Sharon Fima is an expert in complex 3D printing processes and is also the founder of Nano Dimension (Nasdaq: […]

Another pure play cell based meat investment is now available, accessible on the Tel Aviv stock exchange. 

  • MeaTech (TLV: METC), based in Israel completed a reverse merger with Ophectra Real Estate, listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.

Background: MeaTech is developing a 3D stem cell printing technology for cell based meat production. The company’s founder and CEO Sharon Fima is an expert in complex 3D printing processes and is also the founder of Nano Dimension (Nasdaq: NNDM), a leading company in the printing sector. 

Technological Niche: MeaTech isolates somatic stem cells from a bovine umbilical cord and grows these cells inside of a bioreactor. The cells are then differentiated into bioinks or edible inks to 3D print different cell types such as fat and muscle. Once the cells are 3D printed they are placed into incubators to mature and grow. This unique process allows for the development of structured meats such as steaks. https://cellbased.link/c0p 

Bottom Line: MeaTech is currently the only cell based meat company integrating 3D bioprinting into the cell differentiation protocol. 

Investments 

London based cellular agriculture investment firm, Agronomics (ANIC) completed an equity fundraise of £5.5M through the issue of 78,571,429 Ordinary Shares at a price of $.09 per Ordinary Share. Funds were raised through Agronomics Joint Brokers, Zeus Capital Limited and Peterhouse Capital Limited. https://cellbased.link/op6

Publicity

🔥Wondering where to invest $1,000,000 right now? Kathlyn Tan, of Rumah Group says cell based meat. https://cellbased.link/ftz

Events

As cell based investment opportunities keep expanding, stay 👏 in 👏 the 👏 know by attending The Industrializing Cell- Based Meat Summit, March 24-26, 2020

  • Ryan Bethencourt, CEO Wild Earth is a keynote presenter discussing the topic: Creating Realistic Flavor in Cell-Based Meats & the advancements that have been made in the last 12 months to recreate realistic taste of meat.
  • Leo Groenewegen, CEO CellularRevolution will talk about continuous cell culturing techniques and creation of bioreactor capable of continuous cell production. 
  • Paul Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer & Co founder, The Better Meat Co. providing an analysis on cross compatibility between current antibody purification methodologies & the needs of the cell-based meat industry.

Tickets: https://cellbased.link/tx8 

In September 2019, we saw five cell based meat and seafood companies (BlueNalu, Finless Foods, Fork & Goode, JUST, and Memphis Meats) form the Alliance for Meat, Poultry & Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), a coalition to create the regulatory framework for meat, poultry and seafood that is grown directly from animal cells. https://cellbased.link/mzr

The AMPS coalition is taking action by hiring influential lobbying strategist agency Glover Park Group to lobby the Dept. of Agriculture and Food & Drug Administration. […]

In September 2019, we saw five cell based meat and seafood companies (BlueNalu, Finless Foods, Fork & Goode, JUST, and Memphis Meats) form the Alliance for Meat, Poultry & Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), a coalition to create the regulatory framework for meat, poultry and seafood that is grown directly from animal cells. https://cellbased.link/mzr

The AMPS coalition is taking action by hiring influential lobbying strategist agency Glover Park Group to lobby the Dept. of Agriculture and Food & Drug Administration. https://cellbased.link/ifc 

Why We Care: This proactive step may be an indication that cell based meat companies are coming closer to launching products in the market. This news comes the same week that one of the coalition member companies, Memphis Meats, completed a Series B funding round…

💵 With $161 million Series B funding, Memphis Meats will use this capital “to build a pilot production facility, grow its world-class team and bring products to market,” according to a company press release. https://cellbased.link/1id 

The Series B round represents the largest investment in a cell-based meat company to date. New investors include SoftBank Group, Norwest and Temasek as well as existing investors: Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Threshold Ventures, Cargill, Tyson Foods, Finistere, Future Ventures, Kimbal Musk, Fifty Years and CPT Capital. This brings Memphis Meats total funding to $181 million. 

Advancements

🐠 Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company Nutreco announced a strategic partnership with cellular aquaculture company BlueNalu. https://cellbased.link/los 

Through the partnership Nutreco will provide:

  1. Optimization of BlueNalu’s proprietary growth media
  2. Global supply chain partnership to supply ingredients used in media formulation 

Why We Care: Nutreco is another major player from the conventional ag world alongside Cargill, Tyson, and Merck looking to secure a spot in a cell based future. 

Investments

🐢 TurtleTree Labs, the Singapore based company using stem cells to grow mammary glands for milk production announced a pre-seed fundraise (amount undisclosed). Investors include Lever VC, K2 Global, and KBW Ventures. https://cellbased.link/f1l 

Unique Tech: Unlike Perfect Day's methodology which uses precision fermentation to produce milk proteins, Turtle Tree uses a tissue engineering process.This methodology enables Turtle Tree to create a whole identical product to that of animal or human milk rather than just the milk proteins like casein or whey. 

According to a company press release: "The seed funding will be used to further build out the company's scientific team and to create additional prototypes. TurtleTree Labs plans to publicly debut the world's first cultivated milk (and mother's milk) products in the Spring."



A Simple Explanation

With interest in cell based meat building each day, it's helpful and important to know what it is. Although not simple, and this only scratches the surface, we've put together some imagery to help describe the process.

Invite friends and family to our quick breakdown: What is cell based meat (aka lab grown meat)?

Events

For those of you who are wondering when cell based meat will be on the market: The Industrializing Cell- Based Meat Summit, March 24-26, 2020 @ Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco. … may have some answers for you.

Here are some highlights:

  • Ryan Bethencourt, CEO Wild Earth is a keynote presenter discussing the topic: Creating Realistic Flavor in Cell-Based Meats & the advancements that have been made in the last 12 months to recreate realistic taste of meat.
  • Leo Groenewegen, CEO CellularRevolution will talk about continuous cell culturing techniques and creation of bioreactor capable of continuous cell production.
  • Paul Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer & Co founder, The Better Meat Co. providing an analysis on cross compatibility between current antibody purification methodologies & the needs of the cell-based meat industry.

Tickets: https://cellbased.link/tx8

Dutch cell based meat company, Mosa Meat, raised an undisclosed amount from US venture capital firm Lowercarbon Capital and Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company Nutreco. https://cellbased.link/ngd

Mosa Meat raised $8,343,037 in 2018 from Bell Food Group, BELL (SWX) and M Ventures (venture capital arm of Merck MRK (NYSE).

Why We Care: In addition to the financing, Mosa Meat and Nutreco announced a strategic partnership through which Nutreco will support in managing manufacturing supply chains at a global […]



Dutch cell based meat company, Mosa Meat, raised an undisclosed amount from US venture capital firm Lowercarbon Capital and Dutch animal nutrition and fish feed company Nutreco. https://cellbased.link/ngd

Mosa Meat raised $8,343,037 in 2018 from Bell Food Group, BELL (SWX) and M Ventures (venture capital arm of Merck MRK (NYSE).

Why We Care: In addition to the financing, Mosa Meat and Nutreco announced a strategic partnership through which Nutreco will support in managing manufacturing supply chains at a global scale.

There may also be some collaboration on “ingredient inputs” although it is unclear if this refers to cell culture media or which specific ingredients Mosa Meat would be sourcing. Nutreco’s expertise is in supplying animal feed through two of its major subsidiary companies, Skretting and Trouw Nutrition.

  • “The new investment expands on that expertise, presenting an opportunity to consider how Nutreco companies may also support alternative protein suppliers with sustainable ingredients.” Nutreco Investment Director, Joost Matthijssen stated in an email.

Investments

🗽 SOSV venture capital life sciences accelerator, IndieBio has helped launch tissue engineering and cellular fermentation companies including Clara Foods, Finless Foods, Geltor, Memphis Meats, and New Age Meats to name a few.

Now, SOSV is launching a New York based IndieBio accelerator where the firm, according to company press release plans to “double down on life sciences” which includes cellular agriculture. https://cellbased.link/6dt

CBT is based in New York and I look forward to seeing more cellular agriculture in the region!

🍄 Based in Denmark, Octarine Bio, a company using microbial fermentation to synthesize psilocybin derivatives and cannabinoids raised an undisclosed amount from Bruce Linton, the founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth"). https://cellbased.link/7xq

The company is focused on production of rare
and functionally superior cannabinoid molecules (think qualities such as
solubility, bioavailability, absorbability, psychoactivity). I am keeping a close watch on Octarine as they work to close out this initial funding round in the first half of 2020.

Events

For those of you who are wondering when cell based meat will be on the market: The Industrializing Cell- Based Meat Summit, March 24-26, 2020 @ Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco. … may have some answers for you.

Here are some highlights:

  • Ryan Bethencourt, CEO Wild Earth is a keynote presenter discussing the topic: Creating Realistic Flavor in Cell-Based Meats & the advancements that have been made in the last 12 months to recreate realistic taste of meat.
  • Panel discussion on cell culture media, featuring Mercedes Vila, CTO & Co-Founder, Biotech Foods, Leo Groenewegen CEO, CellularRevolution, Max Rye, CTO, Turtle Tree Labs, which will address what  what critical components would be essential prerequisites to a usable cell culture media formulation.
  • Paul Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer & Co founder, The Better Meat Co. providing an analysis on cross compatibility between current antibody purification methodologies & the needs of the cell-based meat industry.

Tickets: https://cellbased.link/tx8

source:giphy

Cell based meat company, New Age Meats, completed a seed funding round of $2.7M. Investors include ff Venture Capital, Agronomics Ltd, Sand Hill Angels, Supernode Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, Kairos Ventures and SOSV. New Age Meats is working towards creating cell based pork and believes they can get their via automation of bioreactors and advanced stem cell research.  

New Age Meats CEO, Brian Spears stated, “This funding enables us to grow our team, invest in automation equipment, and […]

source:giphy

Cell based meat company, New Age Meats, completed a seed funding round of $2.7M. Investors include ff Venture Capital, Agronomics Ltd, Sand Hill Angels, Supernode Ventures, Hemisphere Ventures, Kairos Ventures and SOSV. New Age Meats is working towards creating cell based pork and believes they can get their via automation of bioreactors and advanced stem cell research.  

New Age Meats CEO, Brian Spears stated, "This funding enables us to grow our team, invest in automation equipment, and iterate our unique cultivators we design in house,” in a company press release. https://cellbased.link/b2o  

Investments

Agronomics Limited (ANIC) invested $2,000,000 in Dutch cell based meat company, Meatable for a 5.2% stake in the company. This investment brings Meatable’s total funding to $15,500,000. 

  • Why We Care: Meatable is using OPTi-OX technology to reprogram induced pluripotent stem cells. This advanced technology sets the company apart from many other cellular agriculture companies as the forward reprogramming technology is exclusively licensed through Cambridge Enterprise. 

  • Meatable has yet to release a prototype of their product. According to Agronomic’s press release, Meatable is planning on having an industrial scale manufacturing plant producing thousands of kilograms of meat by 2025. https://cellbased.link/iq5

Publicity

The beginning of 2020 marked the Consumer Electronics Show, which meant big news from the #1 company in [food] tech, Impossible Foods:

  • In an effort to expand the company’s global footprint, Impossible unveiled their plant based version of the world’s most popular meat, pork. https://cellbased.link/6er
  • In the meantime, Impossible Burger is experiencing solid demand and CEO Ethan Brown stated it would be stupid for the company to be vying for McDonalds as “having more big customers right now doesn’t do us any good until we scale up production” in a Reuters article. https://cellbased.link/ma2

source:giphy

Cell based fish company, BlueNalu, announced a product demo of the company’s yellowtail amberjack grown using cellular aquaculture. 

Major Accomplishment: BlueNalu’s yellowtail amberjack is a whole muscle portion of fish, which is a unique feat for a cell based meat company as most companies have been creating samples of unstructured, ground products to date. 

Why We Care: According to a BlueNalu press release, the company is now ready to focus on increasing production volume and launching […]

source:giphy

Cell based fish company, BlueNalu, announced a product demo of the company’s yellowtail amberjack grown using cellular aquaculture. 

Major Accomplishment: BlueNalu’s yellowtail amberjack is a whole muscle portion of fish, which is a unique feat for a cell based meat company as most companies have been creating samples of unstructured, ground products to date. 

Why We Care: According to a BlueNalu press release, the company is now ready to focus on increasing production volume and launching the products into a test market within the next two years. 

Investments 

German lab grown dairy company, Legendairy Foods, is using cellular fermentation to “brew” real milk proteins like casein and whey. They’ve just raised $4.7 million from Merck KGaA, CPT Capital and Agronomics Limited. https://cellbased.link/qgk 

CBT UPDATE 

Last week, I reported on Argentinian Craveri Laboratories and the company’s new cell based meat division called BIFE (Bio Ingeniería en la Fabricación de Elaborados, or Bioengineering in Processed Foods Manufacturing). I caught up with Craveri President and CEO, Juan Craveri, to find out more about the company’s expansion into lab grown meat. 

What I learned: Craveri has extensive research experience in bioengineering cell types (keratinocytes, chondrocytes, cornea, etc) and has already created prototypes of muscle fiber rings that can be formed into a burger or meatball. They are currently working on culturing other cell types (connective tissue cells, fat cells, vascular cells) in order to combine them with the fibers and reach a product with the same texture, consistency and flavor then traditional meat.

The major limit for BIFE is finding a large enough bioreactor for commercial production.

The company is working with local manufacturers to create scaled up bioreactors and once they acquire a big enough bioreactor, BIFE will be ready for commercial production. 

source:giphy

Perfect Day, the company synthesizing dairy proteins through microbial engineering and cellular fermentation completed a $140 million Series C bringing the company’s total funding over $200 million. The Series C round was led by Temasek with additional backing from previous investors including Horizon Ventures. 

The news comes shortly after Perfect Day announced plans to develop cell based fats further leveraging the company’s microbial engineering platform beyond milk proteins. 

With $140 million in the bank: Perfect Day plans to […]

source:giphy

Perfect Day, the company synthesizing dairy proteins through microbial engineering and cellular fermentation completed a $140 million Series C bringing the company’s total funding over $200 million. The Series C round was led by Temasek with additional backing from previous investors including Horizon Ventures. 

The news comes shortly after Perfect Day announced plans to develop cell based fats further leveraging the company’s microbial engineering platform beyond milk proteins. 

With $140 million in the bank: Perfect Day plans to focus on manufacturing and commercializing the company’s animal-free dairy products through partnerships within the dairy industry itself. Stay tuned for announcements of the details of these commercial partnerships coming in 2020. https://cellbased.link/2cu 

Investments

🌱 Venture capital firm, SOSV raised $277 million for its new SOSV IV fund. SOSV’s investment strategy is on deep tech trends including plant based and cellular agriculture and has invested in Memphis Meats, Perfect Day, Clara Foods, and Geltor. With this new influx of capital, SOSV plans to invest in approximately 150 new startups per year. https://cellbased.link/03n 

Argentinian pharmaceutical company, Craveri Laboratories invested in a cellular agriculture division to pursue the research and development of cell based meat. The division is called BIFE (Bio Ingeniería en la Fabricación de Elaborados, or Bioengineering in Processed Foods Manufacturing).http://bife.net.ar/home/

  • Why We Care: BIFE is the first and only company based in Argentina working on cell based meat. Argentina is a major global beef supplier and in 2019 became the leading exporter of beef to China by a small fraction skirting past Brazil. https://cellbased.link/82w 

Meatable’s CSO Daan Luining (left) and CEO Krijn de Nood (right)

Dutch company, Meatable raised an additional $10 million in seed funding (previously raised $3.5 million). Investors include Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of TransferWise, Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, and a portion of the capital from the European Commission through its Eurostars Programme → a European Union fund, which supports innovative product development throughout Europe. https://cellbased.link/j34

Why We Care: Meatable is implementing a unique approach to cultivating […]

Meatable’s CSO Daan Luining (left) and CEO Krijn de Nood (right)

Dutch company, Meatable raised an additional $10 million in seed funding (previously raised $3.5 million). Investors include Taavet Hinrikus, CEO of TransferWise, Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, and a portion of the capital from the European Commission through its Eurostars Programme → a European Union fund, which supports innovative product development throughout Europe. https://cellbased.link/j34

Why We Care: Meatable is implementing a unique approach to cultivating cell based meat with a proprietary technology called, OPTi-OX, a form of genetic intervention that converts pluripotent stem cells into any desired cell type. This technology, according to Meatable, addresses challenges associated with cell based meat production

  • Faster Doubling Time: 20,000 strands of muscle fiber in 3-5 days with OPTi-OX
  • Indefinite Life - Span: a single vial of stem cells sourced from a single umbilical cord proliferate indefinitely.
  • Animal Free Serum: The cells grow off of E8, a completely animal free cell culture medium made up of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and salts.

$$$: According to a Medium article written by Meatable co-founder and CEO, Krijn de Nood, the influx of capital will enable Meatable to expand the cost-reduction and scaling teams with a goal to unveil the first prototype this summer.

Investments

Bond Pet Foods completed a seed funding round of $1.2 million. Investors include Lever VC, Agronomics, KBW Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Andante Asset Management. https://cellbased.link/oqy 

  • A logical first step for cellular agriculture is pet food: Instead of tissue engineering, Bond uses DNA from a heritage hen as the blueprint for protein development. Bond will use a microbial engineering technology to ferment chicken protein in yeast or bacteria. The final product will not be structured meat rather a paste that can be mixed into recipes. 

  • Nick Cooney, Founder and Managing Partner at Lever VC stated in a press release: "What makes us so excited about Bond Pet Foods is that it's the first clean-meat company producing meat protein in a way that doesn't require major technological breakthroughs to get to price parity with conventional meat."

source:LDC

Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator (TLA) and Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) announced a partnership through which Louis Dreyfus will “gain access to new or potentially disruptive technology under the Temasek Life Sciences accelerator’s portfolio.” – Temasek Life Sciences Program Manager, Cheryl Chng, informed me via email.

“TLA and LDC will be looking to invest in agri-tech projects of mutual interest, including but not restricted to biotechnologies for use in innovative food, feed and nutrition applications, and those which could improve […]

source:LDC

Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator (TLA) and Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) announced a partnership through which Louis Dreyfus will “gain access to new or potentially disruptive technology under the Temasek Life Sciences accelerator’s portfolio.” - Temasek Life Sciences Program Manager, Cheryl Chng, informed me via email.

“TLA and LDC will be looking to invest in agri-tech projects of mutual interest, including but not restricted to biotechnologies for use in innovative food, feed and nutrition applications, and those which could improve agricultural productivity, food safety and traceability along the supply chain,” wrote Chng. 

Why We Care: Louis Dreyfus Company, a leading global agricultural commodities processor since 1851 is positioning itself at the forefront of innovation and disruption in agriculture by leveraging TLA’s expertise in life sciences research. Earlier this year, LDC invested in Motif Food Works further signaling, LDC recognition of a changing agricultural landscape to more biotech based solutions. https://cellbased.link/91a98 

Investments

With a current valuation of $2 billion after Impossible Foods most recent funding round, the plant based meat machine is now seeking more capital to the tune of $300-$400 million, according to Reuters article.  

With an aim to bolster up the company valuation to between $3 - $5 billion, Impossible is inching closer to rival, Beyond Meat, currently valued at $4.8 billion.

Perfect Day, the cell based milk company that has a partnership with Archer Daniels Midland to scale the production of milk proteins announced an expansion to their portfolio: cell based fats. https://cellbased.link/94c7f 

Fat Pop Quiz: What are some of the binders that hold your juicy impossible or beyond burger together? Plant based fats. In fact, coconut oil is the third ingredient on the Impossible Burger ingredient label and expeller-pressed canola oil and refined coconut oil are the third and fourth […]

Perfect Day, the cell based milk company that has a partnership with Archer Daniels Midland to scale the production of milk proteins announced an expansion to their portfolio: cell based fats. https://cellbased.link/94c7f 

Fat Pop Quiz: What are some of the binders that hold your juicy impossible or beyond burger together? Plant based fats. In fact, coconut oil is the third ingredient on the Impossible Burger ingredient label and expeller-pressed canola oil and refined coconut oil are the third and fourth ingredients on the Beyond Burger ingredient label. 

Enter Perfect Day: According to the company announcement, Perfect Day plans to use their microbial engineering and cellular fermentation platform to engineer cell based fats that could become ingredient replacements for plant based fats such as coconut oil and palm oil which according to Perfect Day require, “intensive supply chains reliant on a small number of tropical countries.”

In addition to the inefficiencies in growing, harvesting, and shipping plant based fats from tropical rainforests, the function of these fats is not the same as fats from animals sources. Plant based fats do not have the same meltability and solidifying properties, but most importantly the flavor profiles are not as robust as animal based fats. 

2020 Outlook: Perfect Day plans to focus on commercializing their milk protein whilst working to develop cell based fat prototypes. 

source:giphy

Motif FoodWorks, the company leveraging microbial engineering and cellular fermentation technologies to develop next-gen food ingredients and animal-free proteins, announced the location of their new headquarters. 

  • Motif FoodWorks will occupy 10,600 square feet at the Innovation and Design Building in Boston’s Seaport District. https://cellbased.link/2xq 

Motif has assembled a team and now a factory space with industry veterans leaving traditional food companies like Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo to work at a company that focuses specifically on synthetic biology approaches […]

source:giphy

Motif FoodWorks, the company leveraging microbial engineering and cellular fermentation technologies to develop next-gen food ingredients and animal-free proteins, announced the location of their new headquarters. 

  • Motif FoodWorks will occupy 10,600 square feet at the Innovation and Design Building in Boston’s Seaport District. https://cellbased.link/2xq 

Motif has assembled a team and now a factory space with industry veterans leaving traditional food companies like Kraft Heinz and PepsiCo to work at a company that focuses specifically on synthetic biology approaches to manufacturing. 

Motif Execs

  • Jon McIntrye, CEO: Formerly Head of R&D at Indigo Agriculture, SVP R&D at PepsiCo, and SVP at DuPont- Solae
  • Michele Fite, CCO: Formerly President of Kerry’s Dairy and Culinary segment. 
  • Michael Leonard, CTO: Formerly Head of R&D for White Space Innovation and Commercialization at Kraft Heinz. Prior to that, Leonard was the Vice President of Process Technology for Global Snacks R&D at PepsiCo

source:giphy

Richard Reed, Chairman of cell based meat investment firm, Agronomics Limited (LSE:ANIC), stated cellular agriculture is a “very rare once in a generation seismic shift” in an interview with Proactive Investors UK

  • Reed, who was also the co-Founder of Innocent Drinks (environmentally sustainable juice company and sold to Coca Cola in 2013 for $600m), believes cellular agriculture is a proposition that does not require consumers to compromise on what they truly want to eat. He goes on
[…]

source:giphy

Richard Reed, Chairman of cell based meat investment firm, Agronomics Limited (LSE:ANIC), stated cellular agriculture is a “very rare once in a generation seismic shift” in an interview with Proactive Investors UK

  • Reed, who was also the co-Founder of Innocent Drinks (environmentally sustainable juice company and sold to Coca Cola in 2013 for $600m), believes cellular agriculture is a proposition that does not require consumers to compromise on what they truly want to eat. He goes on to say that plant based meats have a valuable place in the market, but cell based meat is a more viable long term solution because it’s bio-identical to real meat. 
  • As for when this seismic shift will occur? Reed believes cell based meat will reach price parity in 2-3 years. https://cellbased.link/2gm

Research

🍜 Japanese ramen conglomerate, Nissin Food Holdings conducted a survey in collaboration with Hirosaki University on consumer acceptance of cultured meat. https://cellbased.link/wyz

What They Found: of the 2,000 men and women, 20 to 59 years old, only 30% said they would like to consume cultured meat. The results indicated low acceptability is partially due to low recognition and consumer knowledge of the benefits. 

Why We Care: Nissin Food Holdings is a multinational food manufacturer with meat in many of its ramen products. Nissin is the only food processor I have seen working on cultivating and researching cell based meat internally, creating a more vertically integrated supply chain.

Announcements

👩🏾‍🔬Connell, a Wilbur-Ellis company and a leading marketer and distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients announced an exclusive agreement for the distribution of Geltor’s lab grown collagen for the Asia-Pacific cosmetics market. https://cellbased.link/7c8c7

  • This news comes shortly after Geltor signed a letter of intent with leading animal collagen manufacturer, GELITA for developing, producing and marketing ingestible animal-free collagen proteins – to be launched in late 2020.
  • According to TechCrunch sources, Geltor is also looking to raise what would be a Series B financing round for between $50,000,000-$100,000,000. They have currently raised $22,950,000.

🇨🇳This past Wednesday, Impossible Foods CEO, Pat Brown, was at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai discussing the development of Impossible plant based pork for the Chinese market. https://cellbased.link/91x

  • In an interview with Bloomberg, Brown stated the plant pork prototype is developed and ready to move into the commercialization phase. 
  • Impossible does not currently sell any of its products in China. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau are the only Asian location where Impossible is available with Singapore being it’s best market. https://cellbased.link/88i

source:giphy

Food technology company JUST, is ready for a small scale launch of their cell based chicken nuggets that will cost $50 PER nugget. The nuggets will be primarily cell based chicken blended with a small amount of JUST proprietary mung bean protein isolate. 

 The next challenge to get JUST’s $50 cell based chicken in your mouth = Regulation.

  • Andrew Noyes, Head of Global Communications, informed me via email, “We are working with regulators in several countries on a
[…]

source:giphy

Food technology company JUST, is ready for a small scale launch of their cell based chicken nuggets that will cost $50 PER nugget. The nuggets will be primarily cell based chicken blended with a small amount of JUST proprietary mung bean protein isolate. 

 The next challenge to get JUST's $50 cell based chicken in your mouth = Regulation.

  • Andrew Noyes, Head of Global Communications, informed me via email, “We are working with regulators in several countries on a pathway to market although we have not disclosed which ones. We are prepared to make our first small-scale commercial sale of a chicken product and we have heard from restaurateurs who are interested in being among the first in the world to offer cultured meat on their menus.”

Advancements

🇩🇪German chemical company BASF (BFFAF:OTCMKTS) announced the launch of Prebilac, a dietary supplement containing: 2’-FL (2’-fucosyllactose), a component of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMO), complex carbohydrates that are naturally present in breast milk. https://cellbased.link/3d915

The ingredient was developed in partnership with biotechnology firm Glycosyn, using microbial engineering and cellular fermentation technology to produce 2’-FL without the need for actual breast milk. 

  • Glycosyn has granted BASF the exclusive license of its HMO patent portfolio for gut health that extends beyond infant nutrition to gastrointestinal health as the ingredient has been demonstrated to be effective at improving digestion by strengthening the gut microbiome. 

Investments

Agronomics Limited (LSE:ANIC) invested $500,000 in Shiok Meats, a Singapore-based company developing cell cultured seafood sourced from real animal protein. Shiok is focusing on shrimp to start, which will most likely be ground and integrated into a dumpling product rather than a whole structured shrimp. 

The investment is in the form of a Convertible Loan Note that will be converted into Ordinary Shares once Shiok Meats completes a Series A funding round of which the company hopes to raise $10,000,000. Once the shares convert, Agronomics will receive 2.3% of the company currently valuing Shiok Meats right around $22,000,000. https://cellbased.link/b2782

source:giphy

🎓Harvard researchers published a breakthrough in cell based meat scaffolding called immersion Rotary Jet-Spinning (iRJS)…picture a cotton candy machine. https://cellbased.link/c4301

  • What This Means: The scaffold enables creation of 3D muscle tissue that mimics the texture of real meat. Scaffolding 101: scaffolds provide structure for cells to replicate and enables the growth of a variety of structures of meat such as steaks or chicken breasts.
  • Go Deeper: The study was conducted using bovine gelatin to develop the scaffold. I
[…]

source:giphy

🎓Harvard researchers published a breakthrough in cell based meat scaffolding called immersion Rotary Jet-Spinning (iRJS)...picture a cotton candy machine. https://cellbased.link/c4301

  • What This Means: The scaffold enables creation of 3D muscle tissue that mimics the texture of real meat. Scaffolding 101: scaffolds provide structure for cells to replicate and enables the growth of a variety of structures of meat such as steaks or chicken breasts.

  • Go Deeper: The study was conducted using bovine gelatin to develop the scaffold. I asked Luke MacQueen, first researcher listed on the study, if the gelatin material could be swapped out for a plant-based material using the same iRJS process. MacQueen replied in email: “We used gelatin for comparison with denatured collagen (found in meat), but it can easily be swapped with other materials or blends. For example, we routinely make fibers from plant proteins and have even spun fibers from popular meal replacements (e.g., Soylent)”. 

  • Bottom Line: While plant based materials can be used in iRJS, I am still unsure if they are as efficient at creating meat structure as animal gelatin. It is possible recombinant gelatin proteins produced through microbial fermentation (e.g. Geltor) may be a valuable input to cell based meat. 

🎓 More Research in Massachusetts…Researchers at Tufts published findings about the impact of heme proteins in cell based meat production. Specifically, how hemoglobin and myoglobin aid in proliferation and differentiation of bovine muscle satellite cells. https://cellbased.link/5dd

  • What They Found: There is a potential benefit of adding myoglobin to cell culture media for increased cell proliferation and adding myoglobin or hemoglobin for the coloration of cell-based meat. 

  • Go Deeper: Researchers were using animal based hemoglobin in this study (not plant based like the Leghemoglobin found in Impossible Burger that comes from soy root). I asked one of the researchers Robin Simsa, M.S. how a cell based meat company would go about sourcing heme molecules that come from animals: 

  • Simsa explained in an email that cell based meat companies could produce recombinant heme proteins produced through microbial fermentation → this is the same process that Impossible uses to produce soy leghemoglobin.
    • Simsa also noted other options to increase heme content in skeletal muscle cells through genetic engineering (upregulation of myoglobin expression) or different process designs, such as hypoxic cell cultivation or addition of certain supplements to the growth media. 

Advancements

Cargill announced the launch of their EverSweet™ stevia. https://cellbased.link/eli

  • Why We Care: EverSweet™ is produced using microbial fermentation to synthesize Reb M and Reb D glycosides, two molecules from the stevia plant. 

  • Why It Matters: This technology enables Cargill to economically and efficiently produce a low calorie sweetener that tastes better than traditional Stevia on the market, because Reb M and Reb D are otherwise found in very small quantities inside of the plant. 

source:giphy

In an interview with CleanTechnica, Erdem Erikçi, CTO of Turkish cell based meat company, Biftek.co, Erikçi mentioned a major challenge cell based meat companies are dealing with: waste build-up.

  • Cells secrete metabolic waste that is naturally cleaned within the body by other tissues such as the liver and the kidney. In the ex vivo (outside the organism) setup, this natural cleaning process does not occur.

One company, Japan based Integriculture, declares to have a solution to this […]

source:giphy

In an interview with CleanTechnica, Erdem Erikçi, CTO of Turkish cell based meat company, Biftek.co, Erikçi mentioned a major challenge cell based meat companies are dealing with: waste build-up.

  • Cells secrete metabolic waste that is naturally cleaned within the body by other tissues such as the liver and the kidney. In the ex vivo (outside the organism) setup, this natural cleaning process does not occur.

One company, Japan based Integriculture, declares to have a solution to this problem:

  • Patented CulNet technology, is a system of three tanks with three different cell types simulating an environment that mimics the interaction between cells as they would behave in the animals body. Integriculture’s CulNet system provides an advantage of recycling serum and reducing waste build up as one tissue produces waste that another type of tissue can re-uptake and reuse as food.

Advancements

Leading animal collagen manufacturer, GELITA and cell based collagen producer, Geltor signed a letter of intent for developing, producing and marketing the first ingestible animal-free collagen proteins – to be launched in late 2020. https://cellbased.link/50g

  • What This Means: The world’s first animal-free collagen for consumption that will actually contain all of the micronutrients found in collagen sourced from animals. 

  • This product will tap two booming markets: collagen peptides + animal free products! 

Cell Based Meat company, Meatable, has joined biotech incubator, Planet B.io, based at the Biotech Campus Delft in The Netherlands. In addition to mentorship from industry veterans such as Royal DSM, the incubator provides office and lab space with a pilot production facility to test technology. https://cellbased.link/80467

  • The incubator was created to accelerate the development of technologies including synthetic biology, microbial fermentation and tissue engineering. 

Investments

Agronomics invests $1.5 million into lab grown leather company, VitroLabs for ~3.79% of the company, implying a $39.5 million valuation. 

VitroLabs is developing cell cultured skin cells through what the company refers to as the “world's first fully scalable tissue-engineering platform.” https://cellbased.link/gqk

Source: Future Meat Technologies

Israeli food tech is on 🔥since the Jewish new year.

🇮🇱Israeli cell based meat company, Future Meat Technologies completes a $14 million Series A financing round led by S2G Ventures and Emerald Technology Ventures. https://cellbased.link/hld

There’s More: In addition to the funding, Future Meat Technologies unveiled a new look with a branding overhaul that depicts what a Future Meat production facility would look like once the company scales production (pictured above) — which according to […]

Source: Future Meat Technologies

Israeli food tech is on 🔥since the Jewish new year.

🇮🇱Israeli cell based meat company, Future Meat Technologies completes a $14 million Series A financing round led by S2G Ventures and Emerald Technology Ventures. https://cellbased.link/hld

There’s More: In addition to the funding, Future Meat Technologies unveiled a new look with a branding overhaul that depicts what a Future Meat production facility would look like once the company scales production (pictured above) -- which according to CNBC article is set to take place in 2021 with a hybrid product that blends plant proteins with lab-grown fat. 

  • As for the full cell based meat product (muscle + fat tissue), Future Meat is planning for a 2022 launch at a price less than $10 per pound. 

Advancements

🇮🇱Israeli cell based meat company, Aleph Farms announced the company took part in an experiment, which successfully grew meat on the Russian segment of the International Space Station, 248 miles away from any natural resources. https://cellbased.link/7vd

  • The experiment, was a collaboration between 4 companies
    • Aleph Farms (Israel): supplied bovine myoblast/fibroblast tissue (cells from cow)
    • Vivax Bio (USA): supplied rabbit myoblast line bovine myoblast/fibroblast tissue (cells from rabbit)
    • Finless Foods (USA): supplied mummichog fibroblasts (cells from Atlantic killifish)
    • 3D Bioprinting Solutions (Russia): supplied 3D bioprinter

  • How it Works: The bio-printer uses magnetic force to aggregate the cells into small scale tissues → the printing technology removes the need for the biodegradable "scaffold” which is traditionally needed to form the meat structure. https://cellbased.link/y0o

🇮🇱New to the Scene Israeli cell based meat company, MeaTech, announced that the company has merged with Ophectra Real Estate and Investments Ltd. (TASE: OPCT).  

  • What We Know: MeaTech is developing a 3D stem cell printing technology and they have raised $2 million USD in seed financing. The company’s founder and CEO Sharon Fima is an expert in complex 3D printing processes and is also the founder of Nano Dimension (Nasdaq: NNDM; TASE: NNDM), a leading company in the printing sector. https://cellbased.link/mar

Renew Biopharma, the San Diego based synthetic biology company developing cannabinoids through microbial fermentation, has announced some significant breakthroughs in their ability to scale cannabinoid biosynthesis.

  • What This Means: Renew engineered more than 300 proprietary enzymes from bacterial strains (patent doc. WO2019183152) that will be used to synthesize both major and minor cannabinoids, as well as cannabinoid derivatives. https://cellbased.link/s93

Investments

Cell Based Meat company, Wild Type (USA) has announced the completion of its $12.5 million Series A financing round led by CRV. Additional investors included Maven Ventures, Spark Capital and Root Ventures. https://cellbased.link/6yp

🍣→ This news comes shortly after Wild Type debuted the first cell based sushi back in June.

source:giphy

Scientists from Miami University in Ohio, engineered E. coli bacteria using DNA from the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom to successfully cultivate  psilocybin AKA cell based magic mushrooms. https://cellbased.link/rh7

🍄pPsilo16, named by the researchers, yields more of the psilocybin compound than any genetically modified organism to date: 1.16 grams of psilocybin per liter.

Advancements

🇷🇺 Russia enters the cell based meat space with the announcement of a cell based “meatloaf” made by Moscow based lab, Ochakov Food Ingredients Plant (OKPI). https://cellbased.link/k0t[…]

source:giphy

Scientists from Miami University in Ohio, engineered E. coli bacteria using DNA from the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom to successfully cultivate  psilocybin AKA cell based magic mushrooms. https://cellbased.link/rh7

🍄pPsilo16, named by the researchers, yields more of the psilocybin compound than any genetically modified organism to date: 1.16 grams of psilocybin per liter.

Advancements

🇷🇺 Russia enters the cell based meat space with the announcement of a cell based “meatloaf” made by Moscow based lab, Ochakov Food Ingredients Plant (OKPI). https://cellbased.link/k0t

  • The meatloaf was only 1.5 oz and took three experiments, carried out over the course of two years. 

Investments

🙋‍♀️The venture capital arm of German specialty chemical company, Evonik, invested in cell based materials company, Modern Meadow (investment amount undisclosed).

  • Leveraging production capacity, the investment is part of a larger strategic partnership for Modern Meadow to move into commercial production at an Evonik site in Slovakia starting in 2020. https://cellbased.link/r9u

🧬Gene synthesis company SGI-DNA, completed a $25 million Series A financing round led by Northpond Ventures, with participation from Oxford Finance and BroadOak Capital Partners. The financing will be used for the commercial launch of the first fully automated gene printer, the BioXp System. https://cellbased.link/31269

Publicity

A research report conducted by the Good Food Institute suggests a new way to describe cell based meat may be the most favorable with consumers: “cultivated meat.” https://cellbased.link/eof

The top terms being used right now:

  • Cultivated Meat 
  • Cell-cultured Meat
  • Cell-based Meat 
  • Cultured Meat

source:giphy

Evolv Ventures, the $100 million venture fund backed by Kraft Heinz invested in cell based cheese company, New Culture. 

Other investors in the $3.5 million seed funding round included Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC and SOSV who followed on after its initial pre-seed investment through IndieBio. https://cellbased.link/d9q

Why We Care: The overall impact of cellular fermentation on the plant based industry has incredible potential for products like New Culture’s plant based mozzarella. 

New Culture’s founder, Matt […]

source:giphy

Evolv Ventures, the $100 million venture fund backed by Kraft Heinz invested in cell based cheese company, New Culture. 

Other investors in the $3.5 million seed funding round included Bee Partners, Mayfield, CPT Capital, Boost VC and SOSV who followed on after its initial pre-seed investment through IndieBio. https://cellbased.link/d9q

Why We Care: The overall impact of cellular fermentation on the plant based industry has incredible potential for products like New Culture’s plant based mozzarella. 

New Culture’s founder, Matt Gibson, and I exchanged an email. Here are his thoughts:

  • “Cellular fermentation is key for us to be able to produce these fundamental proteins that don’t just provide taste but also the meltability, the texture and all the other traits we love about dairy cheese.” 
  • “Our Mozzarella will taste better and function better than the real thing.” 
  • “Our product will have no cholesterol, very little to no saturated fats and will be lactose-free.”

Other Investments

🐶 The public company we covered last week, Agronomics Limited (LSE: ANIC), made another investment in the cell based tech space. 

Agronomics invested $150,000 in Bond Pets LLC, a Boulder, Colorado-based pet food company that is making dog and cat foods sourced from real meat protein synthesized through cell based technology. Bond grows the animal proteins through microbial fermentation and because it is incorporated into pet food, there is no need for 3D structure or scaffolding making the process easier than cell based meat for humans. Bond plans to make their commercial launch Q1 2020. https://cellbased.link/w8l

Events

Ever go to a Cell Based Meat Happy Hour? The evite doesn’t mention any tastings, so that’s disappointing, but you may find some schmoozing opportunities. Hosted by Cultured Meat Symposium, free, and open to anyone.

When: Tue, September 17, 2019 \\ 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM local time

Where: 

source;giphy

Agronomics Limited (LSE: ANIC) made a $750,000 investment in cell based seafood company BlueNalu. This investment is part of a larger Series A funding round that is proceeding BlueNalu’s announcement about the company’s five-phase commercialization strategy, which sets sights on its first large-scale production facility in five years. http://cellbased.link/o9s

Background: Agronomics Limited is a publicly traded investment firm based in London with a focus on investments in the alternative protein space. This past July, Agronomics invested $700,000 in […]

source;giphy

Agronomics Limited (LSE: ANIC) made a $750,000 investment in cell based seafood company BlueNalu. This investment is part of a larger Series A funding round that is proceeding BlueNalu's announcement about the company's five-phase commercialization strategy, which sets sights on its first large-scale production facility in five years. http://cellbased.link/o9s

Background:
Agronomics Limited is a publicly traded investment firm based in London with a
focus on investments in the alternative protein space. This past July,
Agronomics invested $700,000 in cell based meat company, New Age Meats.

Why We Care:
Agronomics is the first public company investment firm focused on cell based
meat and alternative protein investments. Up until now most of the investments
in the cell based tech space have been made by private venture capital firms
such as Stray
Dog Capital
and New Crop Capital. Agronomics provides opportunity for investors
to get a piece of the action in private cell based tech companies. 

Advancements

👩‍🎓👨‍🎓 Undergraduate students at the Imperial College London are working on a project called Multus Media, through which the students have developed an animal-free culture medium that is based on genetically engineered yeast that produces mammalian cell growth factors. The team’s aim with the project is to bring down the cost of cultured meat. http://cellbased.link/5xu

🦆 Japanese cell based meat company, Integriculture unveiled a sample of its cell based foie gras, which was taste tested and approved by Japanese gastronomist Chef Kuwana. IntegriCulture Inc. plans to launch cell-based foie gras in restaurants in 2021 and in retails stores in 2023. http://cellbased.link/14b

Investments

Novalis LifeSciences, a venture capital and advisory firm for the Life Science industry, announced that it has raised $85M in capital for its first fund ▶ Novalis LifeSciences Investments I, L.P. The fund will focus on investments in drug discovery, life science tools, genomics, synthetic biology, diagnostics, and agricultural biotechnology. http://cellbased.link/uyl 

A new Japanese based venture firm, Germi8, has formed with plans to invest in agri-food startups that serve Singapore, Japan and Southeast Asian markets. According to a company press release, Germi8 plans to invest approximately 100 million yen in about 20 projects over the next three years. http://cellbased.link/78i

Regulation 

Five cell based meat and
seafood companies: BlueNalu, Finless Foods, Fork & Goode, JUST, and Memphis
Meats announced that they have formed an Alliance for Meat, Poultry &
Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation).

What This Means: The members will work in congruence with Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration on building out a regulatory framework for meat, poultry and seafood that is grown directly from animal cells, rather than harvested from the animals themselves. http://cellbased.link/6up

Source: PRNewsfoto/Wild Earth, Inc.

The Ginkgo Bioworks spinoff company, formally known as Motif Ingredients raised $27.5M (led by General Atlantic) and rebrands the company announcing a new name: Motif FoodWorks. http://cellbased.link/83b

According to Forbes article, Motif CEO Jon McIntyre shared the company has around fifteen products in the pipeline and gave some rough examples:

  • Human Milk Oligosaccharides: proteins found in human breast milk that could enhance the nutrition of baby formula.
  • Ingredients that could be used in plant based
[…]

Source: PRNewsfoto/Wild Earth, Inc.

The Ginkgo Bioworks spinoff company, formally known as Motif Ingredients raised $27.5M (led by General Atlantic) and rebrands the company announcing a new name: Motif FoodWorks. http://cellbased.link/83b

According to Forbes article, Motif CEO Jon McIntyre shared the company has around fifteen products in the pipeline and gave some rough examples:

  • Human Milk Oligosaccharides: proteins found in human breast milk that could enhance the nutrition of baby formula.
  • Ingredients that could be used in plant based burgers that could allow for a reduction in added fat.

Bottom Line: With a pipeline of proteins and ingredients for food manufacturers to boost nutrition, taste, and functionality of their products, Motif is positioning itself to be the cell based ADM, Ingredion, or Cargill of the future.

Advancements

🏀 Marc Cuban backed company, Wild Earth, launched meat free pet food with cell cultured yeast protein as the star ingredient. The product was unveiled at the SuperZoo Conference, in Las Vegas and will available in independent pet food retailers nationwide starting in September 2019. The packaging is also 🔥🐶! http://cellbased.link/mug

💛 Sustainable Bioproducts, the company making alt protein from volcanic microbes in Yellowstone National Park, is preparing for their full-scale commercial launch (12-18 months) with new additions to their board of directors and management team including former Kraft Foods CEO, Tony Vernon. http://cellbased.link/56x

source:giphy

Eurofins Genomics LLC (US) acquired gene synthesis company Blue Heron Biotech. Gene synthesis is a critical component for cellular fermentation. http://cellbased.link/ilf

Primer: Let’s say a company wants to make animal free whey protein. To start, they would need to acquire the DNA of the whey (through gene synthesis) to subsequently insert into engineered yeast to ferment.

The Eurofins acquisition trends towards increased consolidation in the gene synthesis space. Last year we saw Brooks Automation acquisition of […]

source:giphy

Eurofins Genomics LLC (US) acquired gene synthesis company Blue Heron Biotech. Gene synthesis is a critical component for cellular fermentation. http://cellbased.link/ilf

Primer: Let's say a company wants to make animal free whey protein. To start, they would need to acquire the DNA of the whey (through gene synthesis) to subsequently insert into engineered yeast to ferment.

The Eurofins acquisition trends towards increased consolidation in the gene synthesis space. Last year we saw Brooks Automation acquisition of GeneWiz. Earlier this year, we saw Ginkgo Bioworks acquisition of Gen9.

Bottom Line: As more rapidly growing companies (ahem Impossible Foods) incorporate cellular fermentation into their production processes, gene synthesis will continue to become a more competitive industry with companies reducing costs while increasing complexity of gene synthesis capabilities.

Advancements

🦘The Wall Street Journal reported, new to the scene Aussie cell based meat company, VOW, successfully cultivated a few grams of cell cultured kangaroo meat and made steamed dumplings. VOW is the first company we have seen taking a unique approach to cellular agriculture by looking to species of meat not commonly consumed.

  • Peter Stogios, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at University of Toronto and his team are working to lower the cost of cell based meat by focusing on cell culture media (the broth that the cells grow in containing vitamins, minerals, amino acids and proteins). http://cellbased.link/g7p

  • The Approach: looking at growth factors from a variety of species to find the most potent blend that would require the smallest amount to grow cells. From there they aim to modify the DNA sequence of the growth factors to further increase their potency.

Publicity

In a recent Forbes article, Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, compared Ginkgo's business model to that of Berkshire Hathaway: “It’s a Berkshire for biotech.” http://cellbased.link/czo

This statement was in reference to Ginkgo's model of creating spin off companies that use ingredients or substances created inside Ginkgo's labs. The two spin offs that Ginkgo has created so far are Joyn Bio and Motif Ingredients. While we have yet to see any products on the market from these two spinoff companies, Forbes reported Gingko's revenue last year reached around $40 million, doubling the previous years and is expected to double again this year. Keep up the compound growth rates Ginkgo!

Some big announcements for Impossible Foods:

  1. The Impossible Burger is set to launch in select retail outlets this September. Additional details about this highly anticipated retail debut will be announced as the launch approaches. http://cellbased.link/a3y
  2. The FDA announced approval of heme to be considered a color additive making it viable for future product applications and retail outlets apropos announcement #1. http://cellbased.link/a3y
  3. Impossible Foods announced a partnership with global meat supplier OSI Group (original supplier
[…]

Some big announcements for Impossible Foods:

  1. The Impossible Burger is set to launch in select retail outlets this September. Additional details about this highly anticipated retail debut will be announced as the launch approaches. http://cellbased.link/a3y
  2. The FDA announced approval of heme to be considered a color additive making it viable for future product applications and retail outlets apropos announcement #1. http://cellbased.link/a3y
  3. Impossible Foods announced a partnership with global meat supplier OSI Group (original supplier to McDonald's) to begin production of the Impossible Burger at one of its Midwest plants. Through the partnership, Impossible plans to double its production in the near term and quadruple by the end of 2019 (Impossible currently sells at 10,000 restaurants worldwide). OSI group will also help Impossible develop new products like frozen foods. http://cellbased.link/ie2

Why We Care: Nick Halla, Impossible Foods, senior vice president for international was on CNBC 's Street Signs and stated:

  • “Asia is by far the number one focus for us. It is core to our mission; core to our business.” http://cellbased.link/78a

With 65 production plants across 17 countries, OSI is well poised to advance Impossible's Asia pursuit.

Advancements

🧬Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST) launched a long oligonucleotide (oligos) product line, setting a new commercial industry record of up to 300 bases. http://cellbased.link/q1h

But, What Does It All Mean???

Cellular fermentation starts with oligos, which are inserted into yeast or bacteria to synthesize new products → a process we saw recently executed by Perfect Day to make animal free whey.

By assembling oligos together into longer fragments that encode synthetic genes, they can instruct bacteria or yeast cells to make a wider range of proteins with more accuracy. http://cellbased.link/h6q

Australia is the latest country to enter the cell based meat space with two companies! The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on the companies Hueros in Canberra and VOW in Sydney both developing cell based meat.

Opportunity

Are you an alternative protein or clean meat startup? Big Idea Ventures is launching its inaugural accelerator cohort this September in NYC and applications are due TODAY. Companies receive a $200K investment, a co-working space in the heart of Manhattan, hands-on support from industry experts, and immediate connections to a living community of business mentors, producers, distributors, retailers, food service and every other resource needed for rapid scale. Apply before the end of the day: https://bigideaventures.com.

source:giphy

Boulder, Colorado based synthetic biology company, DMC Biotechnologies completed a $10.3M Series A funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Additional investors include Capricorn Venture Partners and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. http://cellbased.link/17m

Background: DMC uses cellular fermentation to produce a wide range of specialty chemicals, flavors, fragrances, and nutraceuticals.

🍋🍊Why We Care: DMC claims a faster and less capital intensive process for the development and scalability of desired products (comparing themselves to other companies in the space: Ginkgo […]

source:giphy

Boulder, Colorado based synthetic biology company, DMC Biotechnologies completed a $10.3M Series A funding round led by Sofinnova Partners. Additional investors include Capricorn Venture Partners and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. http://cellbased.link/17m

Background: DMC uses cellular fermentation to produce a wide range of specialty chemicals, flavors, fragrances, and nutraceuticals.

🍋🍊Why We Care: DMC claims a faster and less capital intensive process for the development and scalability of desired products (comparing themselves to other companies in the space: Ginkgo Bioworks and Amyris). DMC is currently building out a robust product pipeline that includes amino acids and terpenoids, such as limonene, a byproduct of orange peels that is commonly used in natural cleaning products for the citrus scent (an estimated $500M/year market). http://cellbased.link/1ks

Advancements

🍦Last week we told you about how cell based milk company, Perfect Day Foods launched their first direct to consumer product: ice cream!

🙌 Yuki Hanyu, co-founder and CEO of Japan based cell based meat company, Integriculture told Kyodo News, the company has set a goal of selling "cultured foie gras" to restaurants by 2021 and putting it on the consumer market by 2023. http://cellbased.link/sqj

This news comes after last week's announcement about Integriculture's partnership with Japanese food processing conglomerate, NH Foods.


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source:giphy

Global cannabinoid firm, Cronos Group (NASDAQ: CRON) made two major announcements this week:

1. Acquisition of a fermentation and manufacturing facility in Winnipeg, Canada. “This new facility is expected to provide Cronos Group with the ability to produce cultured cannabinoids at a commercial scale with high quality and high-purity.” http://cellbased.link/ro4

[…]

source:giphy

Global cannabinoid firm, Cronos Group (NASDAQ: CRON) made two major announcements this week:

1. Acquisition of a fermentation and manufacturing facility in Winnipeg, Canada. "This new facility is expected to provide Cronos Group with the ability to produce cultured cannabinoids at a commercial scale with high quality and high-purity." http://cellbased.link/ro4

  • Background: Cronos Group has a partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks to produce cultured cannabinoids through Ginkgo's biology engineering platform. Once the initial cannabinoid molecules are synthesized, Cronos should be well suited for commercialization as this new fermentation facility has a production capacity of 102,000L.

Cronos plans to bring cultured cannabinoids to market through a variety of consumer goods products, which leads us to announcement #2

2. Dr. Todd Abraham was appointed as Chief Innovation Officer. Dr. Abraham comes to Cronos from Mondelēz International, where he last served as the Senior Vice President, Research and Nutrition. Abraham is expected to integrate Cronos Group's cannabinoid technologies within new product developments across categories. http://cellbased.link/ypu

Advancements

🍦Cell based milk company, Perfect Day Foods launched their first direct to consumer product: ice cream! This product tastes like ice cream, acts like ice cream, and IS ice cream made with real milk proteins that did not come from cows. http://cellbased.link/wuv

This DTC model of Perfect Day branded products is just one of the many distribution strategies the company plans to implement. As part of Perfect Day's partnership with Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), the company intends to supply milk proteins B2B to food manufacturers at a commercial scale.

  • Bottom Line: in a recent Food Dive article, Perfect Day founder, Ryan Pandya, stated the challenges with achieving commercial scale as the company needs to increase 10,000X their current production levels to actually make an impact on the food supply chain for dairy. http://cellbased.link/8ve

Japanese cell cultured meat company, Integriculture announced a joint research partnership with Japanese food processing conglomerate, NH Foods. http://cellbased.link/c4194

Why We Care: Integriculture has already solved one of the major obstacles with producing cell based meat: replacing fetal bovine serum A.K.A growth factors A.K.A hormones needed to grow tissue cells. This has been accomplished through what Integriculture calls the CulNet System, which mimics human organs such as the liver to produce hormones. Through the partnership with NH Foods, Integriculture will further develop methodologies for reaching economies of scale. http://cellbased.link/2z4

source:giphy

Research

Researchers at the University of Bath and Portland State University published findings about consumer acceptance of cell cultured meat.

The study had 480 participants:

  • Almost two thirds of participants reported they would be willing to try cultured meat, and almost half would be willing to buy it regularly and eat it instead of conventional meat. 

Findings: While more than half of consumers surveyed said they would try cultured meat, researchers found that the majority of the consumers […]

source:giphy

Research

Researchers at the University of Bath and Portland State University published findings about consumer acceptance of cell cultured meat.

The study had 480 participants:

  • Almost two thirds of participants reported they would be willing to try cultured meat, and almost half would be willing to buy it regularly and eat it instead of conventional meat. 

Findings: While more than half of consumers surveyed said they would try cultured meat, researchers found that the majority of the consumers who would not try cultured meat were in the subject group where the meat was presented with "high tech framing" as opposed to being framed as having "societal benefits" or being "same meat" (clean meat tastes like conventional meat). "Same meat" framing was conducive to the highest rates of willingness to try. http://cellbased.link/z5d

Publicity

Israel based cellular agriculture company, Future Meat Technologies was one of the companies featured at the UK Israel Business (UKIB) Innovate ’19 conference last Wednesday. http://cellbased.link/qjl

  • Founder of Future Meat Technologies, Professor Yaakov Nahmias, pointed at the massive market of carnivores in India and China that plant based meat is not serving.
  • Future Meat still has a long way to go on price reduction and is aiming to get the cost to $20 per kilogram (they did not say by when), which is about ten times as much as farming of real animals.

Advancements

🧫 FUJIFILM Irvine Scientific, subsidiary of FUJIFILM Holdings (FUJIY OTCMKTS), announced plans to open up a third manufacturing facility in Tilburg, Netherlands (they currently have one in the United States and one in Japan) for manufacturing of animal component-free, dry powder media, liquid media, and downstream bio-processing liquids. http://cellbased.link/yn1

Why We Care: Cell culture media is a critical input for cellular agriculture and FUJIFILM CEO says the demand for this valuable resource is rapidly growing. The new facility will propel FUJIFILM past its current 1,000,000 Kg/year of dry powder production capacity.

Investments

Fifty Years, the San Francisco based venture-capital firm that invested in cell based companies Geltor and Memphis Meats, has raised $50 million for its second fund. The second fund will continue to focus on impact investing including more investments in the biotech and sustainable food space. http://cellbased.link/eoh

Events

New Harvest 2019 Conference, July 19 + 20 at the MIT Media Labs in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Hosted by New Harvest: A non-profit research institute building the field of cellular agriculture. This event brings together scientists, researchers, students, investors, startups and other players to discuss the state of the science and technology, how to scale, regulatory conversations and how to bring these products to market. Use our $200 CBT discount link when you register.

Speakers attending include:
Jun Axup, Scientific Director & Partner, IndieBio
Justin Kolbeck, CEO, Wild Type
Brian P. Sylvester, Special Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP
Lisa Feria, CEO, Stray Dog Capital
Ryan Pandya, CEO, Perfect Day Foods
Ka Yi Ling, CSO, Shiok Meats
Natalie Rubio, Research Fellow, Tufts University


Thanks for reading! Please share this CBT Weekly Report with your network on LinkedIn and Twitter.

source:giphy

Lifecycle Biotechnologies, supplier for the medical industry has a new cellular agriculture division. http://cellbased.link/vb1

Although the company has not disclosed names of companies they are working with, Lifecycle Biotechnologies will supply inputs necessary for formulating lab grown meat (confirmed by Aaron Schieving, VP of Sales and Marketing):

  • Cell Culture Media: A nutrient solution for growing tissue cells and in Lifecycle’s case, “custom media formulations optimized to fit the exact ratios of the metabolic needs of a
[…]

source:giphy

Lifecycle Biotechnologies, supplier for the medical industry has a new cellular agriculture division. http://cellbased.link/vb1

Although the company has not disclosed names of companies they are working with, Lifecycle Biotechnologies will supply inputs necessary for formulating lab grown meat (confirmed by Aaron Schieving, VP of Sales and Marketing):

  • Cell Culture Media: A nutrient solution for growing tissue cells and in Lifecycle’s case, "custom media formulations optimized to fit the exact ratios of the metabolic needs of a precise cell line and production platform."
  • Bioreactors: essentially the "processing" step in cellular agriculture where a cell based company take their cells from petri dish to commercial scale inside an aseptic and temperature controlled environment.
  • Scaffold: A supportive structure for cells to grow on. Lifecycle's is made from albumin: a natural, editable and biodegradable protein source that is porous and sponge like to support cell seeding and migration.

Compared to Traditional Agriculture: Companies like ADM and Ingredion facilitate the processing segment of our current food system [at scale]. In a way, that’s what we’re seeing Lifecycle Biotechnologies stepping in to be for cell based food companies [at scale]. I’m still determining how lucrative and necessary the processor will be as the CBT landscape matures.

Investments

Intrexon (NASDAQ: XON) and Surterra Wellness inked a $100 million exclusive licensing deal. Surterra Wellness offers cannabinoid-based medical, health and wellness products. Under the agreement, XON will develop cannabinoids using their proprietary yeast fermentation platform. The deal includes milestone payments on each cannabinoid developed and royalty payments on each cannabinoid commercialized. This isn’t XON’s first weed partnership. http://cellbased.link/y3v

Why We Care: Intrexon’s target cost of goods sold = <$1000/kg.
Compared to:

  • Current COGS indoor growing: $5000-$10,000/kg
  • Current COGS outdoor growing: $3000-$5000/kg

It's not all about the money...

Yeast fermentation enables XON to commercialize novel cannabinoids that are present in trace amounts in cannabis plants (of which there are hundreds). Surterra is looking to bring these novel cannabinoids to market to expand their unique product offerings in the nutraceutical space.

🔌 Take a deeper look: CBT comprehensive list of cannabis biotech companies.

Advancements

🧬Gene synthesis company GenScript (OTCMKTS: GNNSF) has announced the development of a new technology to increase efficiency and accuracy in long sequences of DNA.

Bottom Line: According to company press release, "long sequences of DNA are required for many current and future applications of synthetic biology, such as the development of new bio-based therapeutics, chemicals and materials, new methods of information processing and data storage, and new sources of food and energy." http://cellbased.link/j45

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💡Synthetic Biology company, Amyris ($AMRS), entered into a collaboration agreement with cellular development company Berkeley Lights to provide Amyris with access to a valuable platform within Berkeley Light’s technology suite called the Beacon. [Press Release]

A Beacon of hope: Beacon is an automated platform that would allow Amyris to increase the test volume of engineered strains faster by an estimated potential 10x relative to their current timeline.

Back to reality: The Beacon platform still needs to […]

💡Synthetic Biology company, Amyris ($AMRS), entered into a collaboration agreement with cellular development company Berkeley Lights to provide Amyris with access to a valuable platform within Berkeley Light's technology suite called the Beacon. [Press Release]

A Beacon of hope: Beacon is an automated platform that would allow Amyris to increase the test volume of engineered strains faster by an estimated potential 10x relative to their current timeline.

Back to reality: The Beacon platform still needs to prove it can work for Amyris. I asked an Amyris spokesperson if Beacon will enable them to engineer "host" cells like yeast faster and cheaper. His response:

"Once the technology platform has been successfully demonstrated for our purposes, it will allow us to test the engineered strains faster, which speeds the engineering cycle."

Advancements

Cell Based seafood company, Wild Type, presented cell cultured Coho Salmon as part of an exclusive dinner at Olympia Oyster Bar in Portland Oregon.

🍣First cell based sushi! The menu featured a variety of salmon preparations including ceviche, tartare and sushi - a spicy salmon roll - which was a hit amongst diners. http://cellbased.link/z9u

Investments

🧫Leading synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks made an $80 million equity investment in Synlogic, Inc. ($SYBX). Synlogic is a clinical-stage company engineering living cells to develop a novel class of microbial based medicines. Through the partnership, SYBX will use Ginkgo's "cell programming platform for building and testing thousands of microbial strains to accelerate progression of early preclinical leads to drug candidates optimized for further clinical development." http://cellbased.link/vmi

Why We Care: Although not a directly food related development, Synlogic is one of the first companies to engineer microbes to develop "living" medicines -- these medicines will ultimately impact the microbiome -- our bodies microbial defense system that is largely influenced by the foods we eat.

source:Al Mundane

China state owned multinational food processor looking to food tech: COFCO food processor and manufacturer has partnered with China’s first food tech venture firm Bits x Bites.

🤝 Bits x Bites portfolio companies will receive:

  • Access to COFCO R&D centers, 50,000 square meters of lab space, and scientific equipment.
  • Potential pilot opportunities across COFCO’s supply chain which spans 140 countries.

Backdrop: COFCO has a division covering every facet of the food industry including meat production, wine & […]

source:Al Mundane

China state owned multinational food processor looking to food tech: COFCO food processor and manufacturer has partnered with China's first food tech venture firm Bits x Bites.

🤝 Bits x Bites portfolio companies will receive:

  • Access to COFCO R&D centers, 50,000 square meters of lab space, and scientific equipment.
  • Potential pilot opportunities across COFCO's supply chain which spans 140 countries.

Backdrop: COFCO has a division covering every facet of the food industry including meat production, wine & spirits, Coca-Cola, sugar -- they essentially control the entirety of China's food supply, imports and exports.

The Bottom Line: The partnership is setting the stage for Bits X Bites portfolio companies including Israeli cell based meat company, Aleph Farms to expedite commercialization and distribution of their products to the Chinese market.

Advancements

🐛Tissue engineering may become appetizing via lab grown insects as Tufts researchers report on cost, energy, and overall effort savings of engineering insect cells compared to larger 3D meat structures.

....if cell cultured chicken and cow wasn't already enough of a Jedi mind trick, the researches are now theorizing that cell cultured insects could "be used to replicate related creatures like crab and other crustaceans." http://cellbased.link/ar5

Events

New Harvest 2019 Conference, July 19 + 20 at the MIT Media Labs in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Hosted by New Harvest: A non-profit research institute building the field of cellular agriculture. This event brings together scientists, researchers, students, investors, startups and other players to discuss the state of the science and technology, how to scale, regulatory conversations and how to bring these products to market. Use our $200 CBT discount link when you register.

Speakers attending include:
Jun Axup, Scientific Director & Partner, IndieBio
Justin Kolbeck, CEO, Wild Type
Brian P. Sylvester, Special Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP
Lisa Feria, CEO, Stray Dog Capital
Ryan Pandya, CEO, Perfect Day Foods
Ka Yi Ling, CSO, Shiok Meats
Natalie Rubio, Research Fellow, Tufts University


At Cell Based Tech, we deliver business-reader-friendly cellular based food news. We realize our readers of venture capitalists, analysts, food brand executives, and private investors seek smart brevity. This is our promise. If you want to stay on top and even ahead of the cell based tech landscape, sign up for the Cell Based Tech newsletter. If it is not worthy of your time, you can unsubscribe at any time. No hard feelings.

source:giphy

New To The Scene: Cellular agriculture company, Cellibre closed its first funding round for an undisclosed amount. Investors include Cresco Capital Partners, Flatiron Venture Partners and Delta Emerald Ventures. http://cellbased.link/k25

The Cellibre Story is unique. The company’s initial focus will be on cannabinoid biosynthesis AKA producing cannabinoid molecules such as CBD to THC by isolating cells rather than extracting from the cannabis plant itself.

What Else? Many of the other players in the cannabinoid biosynthesis space are using yeast, e. coli, […]

source:giphy

New To The Scene: Cellular agriculture company, Cellibre closed its first funding round for an undisclosed amount. Investors include Cresco Capital Partners, Flatiron Venture Partners and Delta Emerald Ventures. http://cellbased.link/k25

The Cellibre Story is unique. The company's initial focus will be on cannabinoid biosynthesis AKA producing cannabinoid molecules such as CBD to THC by isolating cells rather than extracting from the cannabis plant itself.

What Else? Many of the other players in the cannabinoid biosynthesis space are using yeast, e. coli, or algae to reproduce the DNA code. Cellibre "focuses on nontraditional organisms" says company CEO Ben Chiarelli, and these organisms will be more efficient in the production of the specified cell type. The exact organisms that Cellibre will be using are undisclosed, but the approach is said to be novel and protectable.

Bottom Line: In an interview with New Cannabis Ventures, Chiarelli states that isolating, extracting, and processing CBD from the plant costs $1K to $2K per kilogram. Biosynthesis pricing will fall below this and provide a more efficient solution for isolating specific molecules that can be useful in medicinal applications as well as for CBD and THC infused products like beer or ice cream.

Investments

Paris-London based venture firm, Future Positive Capital, closed $57.1 million funding round for an investment fund focused in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, synthetic biology and genetics. http://cellbased.link/w2g

Why We Care: Future Positive Capital has already invested in cell based meat company, Meatable, a company addressing many of the common challenges associated with cell based meat production using a proprietary stem cell technology. http://cellbased.link/u01

Publicity

Former CEO of BP, John Browne, published a book entitled, ‘Make, Think, Imagine’ and positions engineering at the center of the next phase of progress.

Here is an excerpt: "Biology is becoming an established part of engineering and, if this rapid progress continues and synthetic biology succeeds in unraveling the complexity of cellular metabolism, the implications could be profound." http://cellbased.link/kmb

🥳 Next Weekend

 Plant Based World Conference & Expo, June 7-8 @ Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City. http://cellbased.link/welcome-plant-95287

Here is what to look forward to:

  • Speaker Lisa Feria CEO, StrayDog Capital (invested in Geltor, Blue Nalu, SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, Memphis Meats, and Mosa Meat)
  • Speaker T.K. Pillan Partner and Co-founder PowerPlant Ventures (invested in JUST)
  • Speaker Lou Cooperhouse, President and Founder of cell based fish company, Blue Nalu
  • Expo Samples! This will feature some awesome brands including Wild Earth cell based pet treats!

German chemical company, BASF ($BFFAF) has signed a partnership agreement with Boston based biotech company, Glycosyn to market human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) for dietary supplements, functional nutrition, and medical food. http://cellbased.link/pdt

Why We Care: Glycosyn develops HMOs through proprietary biosynthesis processes in partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks. These biosynthesis processes incorporate cellular fermentation to synthesize HMOs at scale and more affordably then by chemical or enzymatic synthesis.

Beyond Babies: Beyond the obvious application of baby formula, emerging […]

German chemical company, BASF ($BFFAF) has signed a partnership agreement with Boston based biotech company, Glycosyn to market human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) for dietary supplements, functional nutrition, and medical food. http://cellbased.link/pdt

Why We Care: Glycosyn develops HMOs through proprietary biosynthesis processes in partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks. These biosynthesis processes incorporate cellular fermentation to synthesize HMOs at scale and more affordably then by chemical or enzymatic synthesis.

Beyond Babies: Beyond the obvious application of baby formula, emerging scientific evidence shows HMOs to be effective at treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Glycosyn holds exclusive rights for the use of HMOs in treating these conditions with other patents in process.

Take Away: Cellular fermentation is enabling bioengineers to synthesize and produce valuable substances that occur in nature at scale.

Advancements

Impossible™ Sausage launches at Little Caesars® in Washington, New Mexico, and Florida. Like the Impossible Burger, the sausage is made primarily of soy protein and cell based heme with a few differing ingredients. According to Impossible Foods website, the sausage has a "fattier flavor and juicier, chewier bite than the Impossible Burger. http://cellbased.link/v7v

Investments

🧬 DNA Script closed a $38.5 million Series B investment round led by LSP. Other investors include Illumina Ventures, M. Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Kurma Partners and Idinvest Partners.
Why We Care: DNA Script will supply affordable, rapid, high-quality production of synthetic DNA which is a critical part of the supply chain for products synthesized through cellular fermentation. http://cellbased.link/fbu

🐶 🦴Cell based pet food company, Wild Earth, closes an $11 million Series A investment round led by VegInvest. Other current investors include Mark Cuban's Radical Investments, Felicis Ventures, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and Mars Petcare, bringing total funding to $16 million. http://cellbased.link/ulb

Amyris (Nasdaq:AMRS), received its first $10 million milestone out of a $255 million deal from LAVVAN for the development of cell based cannabinoids. "The company expects to bring the first fermentation-derived cannabinoid products to market next year with better purity and at significantly reduced costs compared to similar products and ingredients." http://cellbased.link/9y1

Mars Inc and Jerusalem Venture Partners announced a research and development agreement to invest in companies in the food tech space. It is unclear exactly what type of technologies the companies are looking at, but they aim to address solutions for global food, agriculture and nutrition challenges. http://cellbased.link/kl1


Disclosures:

  • Cell Based Tech has no business relationship with any company mentioned in this article.
  • Cell Based Tech is not a registered financial adviser, and this is not financial advice. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a financial adviser before making investment decisions.

source: aleph-farms.com

Israeli cell based meat company, Aleph Farms, completes $12 million Series A funding round led by Singapore-based venture fund VisVires New Protein (VVNP). Additional investors include Cargill, M-Industry (the industrial group of Swiss retailer Migros), Strauss Group, Peregrine Ventures, CPT Capital, Jays Third Eight and New Crop Capital.

The Edge: Aleph Farms has developed a unique bio-engineering platform in collaboration with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa to grow meat as a complete tissue structure that […]

source: aleph-farms.com

Israeli cell based meat company, Aleph Farms, completes $12 million Series A funding round led by Singapore-based venture fund VisVires New Protein (VVNP). Additional investors include Cargill, M-Industry (the industrial group of Swiss retailer Migros), Strauss Group, Peregrine Ventures, CPT Capital, Jays Third Eight and New Crop Capital.

The Edge: Aleph Farms has developed a unique bio-engineering platform in collaboration with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa to grow meat as a complete tissue structure that includes muscle, fat, blood vessels, and connective tissue. This 3D technology platform enables Aleph to grow steaks with the same muscle tissue structure and mouthfeel as actual animal tissue. According to the company press release, "the injection of capital will allow Aleph Farms to accelerate product development of its slaughter-free meat and to transform Aleph's prototype (released last December) into a commercial product." http://cellbased.link/a7

Why We Care: This is not the first investment global meat giant, Cargill has made in the cell based meat space. The company has also participated in a $20 million funding round of Memphis Meats, and last December they invested in a 188,000 sq. ft. facility dedicated to researching and developing the future of protein.

Advancements

German based company, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (not to be confused with the U.S. based company Merck & Co.) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a cooperative agreement to intensively pursue innovation, digitalization and materials research as it relates to space exploration. Part of this agreement includes research and development of biotechnology required to produce genuine meat grown in vitro. http://cellbased.link/mw

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which also operates under the name MilliporeSigma, is already a large scale supplier of cell culture media, bioreactors and specializes in process design for cell culture growth and harvest.

🐓 Future Fields is the newest cell based meat company to hit the scene. Based in Canada, Future Fields is focusing their initial stage of research and development on animal-free serum as a media supplement to foster robust cell growth. Beyond that, the company has plans to develop cell based chicken. http://cellbased.link/h9


Disclosures:

  • Cell Based Tech has no business relationship with any company mentioned in this article.
  • Cell Based Tech is not a registered financial adviser, and this is not financial advice. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a financial adviser before making investment decisions.

source:giphy

Big Idea Ventures, a venture fund with offices in New York and Singapore announced the launch of their New Protein Fund with $50 million in the bank. The New Protein Fund invests in companies in the plant-based, cell based and alternative protein ecosystem. The firm’s first investment was $4.6 million cell based seafood company, Shiok Meats. http://cellbased.link/j

Why We Care: The New Protein Fund is backed by Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and Temasek, a private global […]

source:giphy

Big Idea Ventures, a venture fund with offices in New York and Singapore announced the launch of their New Protein Fund with $50 million in the bank. The New Protein Fund invests in companies in the plant-based, cell based and alternative protein ecosystem. The firm's first investment was $4.6 million cell based seafood company, Shiok Meats. http://cellbased.link/j

Why We Care: The New Protein Fund is backed by Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) and Temasek, a private global investment company headquartered in Singapore. Tyson is rapidly expanding their stake in the alternative protein space, even after pulling out of Beyond Meat earlier this week.

Publicity

Impossible Burger announced the launch of the Impossible Whopper, currently only available in St. Louis, but coming soon to 7,000 Burger King's nationwide. This announcement was followed by the news that many of the restaurants currently carrying the Impossible Burger cannot keep them in stock to which "Impossible Foods explained that demand was outpacing the company’s manufacturing capabilities." http://cellbased.link/kl

source:giphy

Cell cultured egg company Clara Foods completed its Series B financing (amount undisclosed), led by global ingredient solutions company Ingredion. As part of the funding round, the two companies “will work together to jointly develop, market and globally distribute novel, highly functional protein ingredient products that enable food and beverage companies to produce products with higher levels of protein, unique characteristics, and lower costs without the inclusion of animal-derived inputs.” http://cellbased.link/vnas3

Chicago based venture capital fund Cultivian Sandbox […]

source:giphy

Cell cultured egg company Clara Foods completed its Series B financing (amount undisclosed), led by global ingredient solutions company Ingredion. As part of the funding round, the two companies "will work together to jointly develop, market and globally distribute novel, highly functional protein ingredient products that enable food and beverage companies to produce products with higher levels of protein, unique characteristics, and lower costs without the inclusion of animal-derived inputs." http://cellbased.link/vnas3

Chicago based venture capital fund Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, which has invested in cell based gelatin company, Geltor, announced the closing of its third venture capital fund. The $135 million fund invests in food and agriculture technology companies such as those addressing the increasing demand for protein. Some of the fund investors include, Archer Daniels Midland , Corteva Agriscience, Ecolab, Elanco, Griffith Foods, GROWMARK, Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, R.D. Offutt Company, Smithfield Foods, and Sumitomo Chemical America. http://cellbased.link/of135

French company, Supreme, plans to do what the French do best: make foie gras. But not by forcefeeding geese – through cellular agriculture. The company plans to source cells from duck eggs and feed the cells proteins, lipids, and vitamins that mimic the natural diet of the duck when eating oats, corn or grass to cultivate fatty liver cells.

Texas based biopharmaceutical and chemical company, Lifecycle Biotechnologies has announced the establishment of a Cellular Agriculture Division, which will include Animal Genetics, Animal Health, and Clean Meat. Lifecycle Biotechnologies will be supplying inputs to the cellular agriculture industry of producers. http://cellbased.link/agjc

Events

🌱 Plant Based World Conference & Expo, June 7-8 @ Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City. http://cellbased.link/welcome-plant-95287

Here is what to look forward to:

  • Speaker Lisa Feria CEO, StrayDog Capital (invested in Geltor, Blue Nalu, SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, Memphis Meats, and Mosa Meat)
  • Speaker T.K. Pillan Partner and Co-founder PowerPlant Ventures (invested in JUST)
  • Speaker Lou Cooperhouse, President and Founder of cell based fish company, Blue Nalu
  • Expo Samples! This will feature some awesome brands including Wild Earth cell based pet treats!

source:giphy

🍜 Cell based meat in-your-ramen-research is underway! Hiroki Ando, President and CEO of Nissin Food Holdings has been working with researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Uni. Tokyo) to produce diced steak using cell based technology. The research group had success in the maturation process of bovine muscle cells feeding the cells vitamin C and using collagen gel as a scaffold structure. http://cellbased.link/6ff20

Why We Care: Diced steak is the meat component of ramen and Nissin […]

source:giphy

🍜 Cell based meat in-your-ramen-research is underway! Hiroki Ando, President and CEO of Nissin Food Holdings has been working with researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Uni. Tokyo) to produce diced steak using cell based technology. The research group had success in the maturation process of bovine muscle cells feeding the cells vitamin C and using collagen gel as a scaffold structure. http://cellbased.link/6ff20

Why We Care: Diced steak is the meat component of ramen and Nissin is a global ramen powerhouse. This is the first example we’ve seen of a food processor incorporating cell based meat into their product, creating a more vertically integrated supply chain.

Investments

At the 11th Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) Meeting in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong confirmed an investment of $144 million shall be allocated to carry out R&D in Sustainable Urban Food Production, Future Foods and Food Safety Science & Innovation. Food innovation includes "improvement of the functionality, formulation and flavor of plant-based protein food products, as well as developing scaffolding techniques with sustainable, cost-effective cell culture media for cell-based cultured meat." http://cellbased.link/daa64

Advancements

🌽 Last week, we reported on researchers from University of Bath using grass as scaffolding to grow cell based meat. This week, researchers from Penn State and the University of Alabama are experimenting with the use of starch fibers (from corn) as scaffolding for cell based meat.

What this means: The scaffold used in cell based meat production will ultimately become part of the finished product that we eat. Many of the current scaffolds used in biomedical applications are made from plastic, which will not fly for consumption. Companies must find scaffolding for cells that take into consideration a variety of design requirements: bio-compatibility, biodegradability, elasticity, pore size, geometry, tensile strength while being edible and economically efficient. http://cellbased.link/a02c0

🌿 Another week, another cell based cannabinoid. Public company Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS) has officially announced an agreement to develop, license, and commercialize cell based cannabinoids for newly formed cannabis company LAVVAN, Inc.

What Amyris gets: $300 million of R&D and milestone payments plus long-term royalties for the development of synthetic cannabinoids.

LAVVAN will be responsible for the global manufacturing and commercialization of the cannabinoids.

According to an Amyris company press release, the company is poised to bring consistent and pure cannabinoids, synthesized through fermentation, rather than plant propagation. Amyris is already a leader in cellular fermentation technology and currently using their platforms for products in skin care, flavors, fragrances and sweeteners. http://cellbased.link/b745f

source:giphy

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare holds the regulatory key to CRISPR-edited foods in Japan. The advisory panel to the ministry has recommended gene edited foods shall not require safety screening. The advisory panel believes gene edited foods, whereby genes are mutated within the organism itself are safe and essentially no different from traditional breeding methods. http://cellbased.link/genome-4c4af

Why We Care: Just last week we heard about two cell based meat companies employing the use of CRISPR editing […]

source:giphy

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare holds the regulatory key to CRISPR-edited foods in Japan. The advisory panel to the ministry has recommended gene edited foods shall not require safety screening. The advisory panel believes gene edited foods, whereby genes are mutated within the organism itself are safe and essentially no different from traditional breeding methods. http://cellbased.link/genome-4c4af

Why We Care: Just last week we heard about two cell based meat companies employing the use of CRISPR editing to improve cellular regeneration in vitro. This is a big step for Japan and may inspire food innovators to blossom in Japan.

Advancements

Based in the United Kingdom, University of Bath, Dr. Marianne Ellis and a team of Biochemical Engineers, are working on the latest cell based meat project funded by New Harvest.

Their approach? Use grass as the scaffold!
This means grass will provide the structure for cells to replicate and live on. Dr. Ellis made no clear remarks as to the type of cell culture media they will be using or how far along their team is in the process. According to an interview with Dr. Ellis, she believes Dutch company, Mosa Meat to be the most advanced and that according to Mosa Meat we are looking at four to five years before we are seeing cell based meat in supermarkets. http://cellbased.link/lab-plate-45017

Investments

🦈 Cell based meat hits Shark Tank! Cultured pet food company, Wild Earth, inks a $550,000 investment from Mark Cuban for a 10% stake in the company. "There's an enormous potential market for lower-cost, sustainable protein to feed the growing worldwide pet population and Wild Earth is now the alpha dog in this space," said Cuban. http://cellbased.link/wild-earth-d26e2

🍤 Singapore based, Shiok Meats, becomes the first cell based meat company to join Y Combinator. Shiok Meats plans to focus their efforts on the production of cultured shrimp. http://cellbased.link/batch-part-88ec5

Publicity

French market research firm, Ipsos, conducted a research report of 1001 Belgian consumers attitudes toward meat consumption and perception of cell based meat. http://cellbased.link/3004d

  • 4 out of 10 respondents had a positive attitude
  • 4 out of 10 had a neutral first impression
  • 15% had a negative attitude
  • 38% of respondents believe there is a need for cell based meat production
  • Age seems to be irrelevant as 30% of respondents across all ages have a positive first impression of cell based meat
  • 24% of respondents are willing to pay up to 10% more for cell based meat compared to conventionally produced meat

🌱Plant Based World Conference & Expo, June 7-8 @ Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City. http://cellbased.link/welcome-plant-95287

Here is what to look forward to:

  • Speaker Lisa Feria CEO, StrayDog Capital (invested in Geltor, Blue Nalu, SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, Memphis Meats, and Mosa Meat)
  • Speaker T.K. Pillan Partner and Co-founder PowerPlant Ventures (invested in JUST)
  • Speaker Lou Cooperhouse, President and Founder of cell based fish company, Blue Nalu
  • Expo Samples! This will feature some awesome brands including Wild Earth cell based pet treats!

source:giphy

Cell based meat companies, New Age Meats and Memphis Meats are employing gene editing tool CRISPR to assist in cell tissue growth. http://cellbased.link/997ab

Why We Care: CRISPR could potentially help scientists address two major challenges associated with producing cell based meat

  1. Limited lifespan of cell based meat starter cells: CRISPR has the potential to encourage animal cells to keep regenerating without the need to continuously biopsy animal tissue to culture more meat. According to a patent filed by
[…]

source:giphy

Cell based meat companies, New Age Meats and Memphis Meats are employing gene editing tool CRISPR to assist in cell tissue growth. http://cellbased.link/997ab

Why We Care: CRISPR could potentially help scientists address two major challenges associated with producing cell based meat

  1. Limited lifespan of cell based meat starter cells: CRISPR has the potential to encourage animal cells to keep regenerating without the need to continuously biopsy animal tissue to culture more meat. According to a patent filed by Memphis Meats, CRISPR would allow "genetic amendments, which extend the renewal capacity of cells” http://cellbased.link/cbtpatent1
  2. (Bye, bye, bye) Fetal Bovine Growth Serum: CRISPR has the potential to enable cells to renew and replicate without the use of fetal bovine serum.

Bottom Line: Most cell based meat companies are still in the early stages of the production life cycle, focused on cell growth and regeneration -- industrialization is 6-10 years out.

Regulation - it's a party!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a formal agreement to share joint regulatory oversight of cell based meat. According to the agreement, "FDA oversees cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation. A transition from FDA to FSIS oversight will occur during the cell harvest stage. FSIS will oversee the production and labeling of human food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry." http://cellbased.link/usda-93dcf

Publicity

According to a survey conducted by Frontiers, consumers in China are looking to lead the charge in adoption of cell based meat. Researchers from Frontiers surveyed 3,030 respondents: 987 in the USA, 1,024 in India, and 1,019 in China. http://cellbased.link/food-neophobia-6ca81

Here's what they found:

USA

  • 23.6% were not at all likely to purchase lab grown meat
  • 46.6% were somewhat or moderately likely
  • 29.8% were very or extremely likely

CHINA

  • 6.7% were not at all likely to purchase lab grown meat
  • 33.9% were somewhat or moderately likely
  • 59.3% were very or extremely likely

INDIA

  • 10.7% were not at all likely to purchase lab grown meat
  • 37.7% were somewhat or moderately likely
  • 48.7% were very or extremely likely

source:giphy

Motif Ingredients, spun out of Boston based Ginkgo Bioworks, has launched with plans to engineer animal based proteins like milk and eggs through cellular fermentation. The company has raised $90 million in series A financing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Louis Dreyfus Company, Fonterra, and Viking Global Investors. http://cellbased.link/ginkgo-a07e8

Why We Care: Ginkgo’s platform for bioengineering is currently applied to produce consumer products ranging from cannabis to fragrances. Now they are thinking beyond […]

source:giphy

Motif Ingredients, spun out of Boston based Ginkgo Bioworks, has launched with plans to engineer animal based proteins like milk and eggs through cellular fermentation. The company has raised $90 million in series A financing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Louis Dreyfus Company, Fonterra, and Viking Global Investors. http://cellbased.link/ginkgo-a07e8

Why We Care: Ginkgo's platform for bioengineering is currently applied to produce consumer products ranging from cannabis to fragrances. Now they are thinking beyond conventional cow's milk and chicken eggs to engineer new foods like sturgeon eggs and camel milk -- an effort to promote biodiversity, as we move away from animal agriculture towards cellular agriculture.

Advancements

Angel Yeast, a China based yeast company has announced their plans to focus on the global bioengineering industry by supplying nutrient inputs used in microbial fermentation and cell culture. http://cellbased.link/yeast-3cffb

The worlds first cell cultured dog treats made by biotech startup, Wild Earth are now available in boutique retail locations and online through the subscription service PupJoy. The Koji protein dog snacks are made by synthesizing live fungal strains of Koji and growing these strains through cellular fermentation. http://cellbased.link/wild-earth-0b5b6

Check out Wild Type’s proposed cell based meat value chain. The green and orange colors indicate Wild Type’s level of focus in each area, which is similar across the industry.

Graphic by Wild Type

Givaudan (OTCMKTS: GVDNY), global leader in production of flavors and fragrances may be producing inputs that cell based meat companies could integrate in the “prototyping & refinement” phase of flavoring the meat.

On Monday, Givaudan announced a partnership with The Kitchen, part of the Strauss […]

Check out Wild Type's proposed cell based meat value chain. The green and orange colors indicate Wild Type's level of focus in each area, which is similar across the industry.

Graphic by Wild Type

Givaudan (OTCMKTS: GVDNY), global leader in production of flavors and fragrances may be producing inputs that cell based meat companies could integrate in the "prototyping & refinement" phase of flavoring the meat.

On Monday, Givaudan announced a partnership with The Kitchen, part of the Strauss Group Alpha Venture Hub.
http://cellbased.link/partnership-3ac95

Why We Care: The Kitchen incubator has an investment portfolio of companies that are actively shaping the future of food and alternative protein production processes. One noteworthy company, Aleph Farms, is developing cell based meat and focusing specifically on creating the worlds first lab grown steak. The Kitchen partnership with Givaudan demonstrates potential collaboration that could improve upon the cell based meat value chain.

Investments

Plant based egg and soon-to-be cell based meat company, JUST Inc is seeking to raise $200 million in funding. http://cellbased.link/egg-free-4e377

Since hosting the Next Gen Food Forum in November, China based venture firm, Dao Foods International, Inc has been relatively quiet. Dao's latest cell based tech move is a partnership with U.S. based venture firm New Crop Capital whereby Dao will serve as the financial advisor to New Crop for China focused plant based and clean meat ventures.

New Crop Capital is an investor in Dao Foods and is deep in the cell based meat game, with additional investments in Mosa Meat, Memphis Meats, Geltor, Blue Nalu, Aleph Farms. http://cellbased.link/beijing-china-f4a18

Advancements

Funded by the Government of Maharashtra, the State University of Mumbai's Institute of Chemical Technology, has announced plans to establish a Centre for Excellence in Cellular Agriculture. The Centre is set to open in 2020 and will be the world's first state funded research facility dedicated to cellular agriculture. http://cellbased.link/joined-hands-3ebc2

📢 Make Your Voice Heard!

The University of Edinburgh and AbacusBio Limited are conducting a survey to gauge consumer attitudes on gene edited meat. http://cellbased.link/editing-food-14336

source:giphy

Chicago based startup, Sustainable Bioproducts, is working to bring microorganisms from the pristine Yellowstone National Park all the way to your plate. These microbes have a neutral flavor and contain all 9 essential amino acids, making them complete protein sources. The company plans to proliferate the high protein microbes in a lab via acellular fermentation. They hope to have microbe products for sale within two years, which could include everything from veggie burgers to yogurt.

Sustainable Bioproducts […]

source:giphy

Chicago based startup, Sustainable Bioproducts, is working to bring microorganisms from the pristine Yellowstone National Park all the way to your plate. These microbes have a neutral flavor and contain all 9 essential amino acids, making them complete protein sources. The company plans to proliferate the high protein microbes in a lab via acellular fermentation. They hope to have microbe products for sale within two years, which could include everything from veggie burgers to yogurt.

Sustainable Bioproducts closed a $33 million funding round on Monday led by venture capital firm 1955 Capital. Investors also include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, led by Bill Gates and public companies Danone SA (OTCMKTS: DANOY) and Archer-Danials-Midland Co (NYSE: ADM). http://cellbased.link/584b9

Why we care: This discovery highlights the potential of acellular agriculture to generate protein and other food sources inexpensively and with minimal environmental impact.

Investments

Cell based flavor and fragrance company, Amyris, Inc. AMRS (NASDAQ) announced a cannabinoid development, licensing and commercialization partnership valued at up to $255 million with a confidential partner. According to the company's press release, the $255 million will include an upfront payment and future payments based on milestones over the next 12-36 months. http://cellbased.link/26f0d

There are currently three other public companies working on cell based cannabinoid production.
- Cronos Group (CRON) in partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks
- Organigram (ORGIF) in partnership with Hyasynth Bio
- Intrexon (XON) in partnership with Next Green Wave (NXGWF)

What this means. Using cellular technology to propagate cannabis plant compounds in a lab has the potential to maximize yield and eliminates the traditional resources of land, water, light and seeds.

Advancements

Applikon Biotechnology B.V. a Dutch based bioprocess equipment supplier announced a partnership with Meatable to supply single-use stirred tank bioreactors necessary to cultivate iPSC (stem cells) in volume. Applikon has designated a "CLEANMEAT" team to develop the bioreactors and plans to rollout the first product within three years. http://cellbased.link/95e1e

Publicity

In an interview with Food Ingredients First, Niccolo Manzoni, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Five Seasons Ventures, Paris-based venture capital firm, predicts lab grown meat is 10 years out from being available in the mainstream. As for acellular products like milk, eggs and heme, Manzoni is excited about the timing and affordability of these products on the horizon. http://cellbased.link/plant-based-adea

source:giphy

There are dozens of companies working on cell based meat production, but Intrexon is the first company to work on cell based plant production — a process by which plant cells are isolated from the mother plant and grown in cell culture media.

Intrexon Corporation (NASDAQ: XON) is bringing the first cell based plant technology known as Boticelli™️ to market through a strategic licensing deal with publicly traded pot company Next Green Wave NXGWF (OTCMKTS). http://cellbased.link/intre8f5f9

Why […]

source:giphy

There are dozens of companies working on cell based meat production, but Intrexon is the first company to work on cell based plant production -- a process by which plant cells are isolated from the mother plant and grown in cell culture media.

Intrexon Corporation (NASDAQ: XON) is bringing the first cell based plant technology known as Boticelli™️ to market through a strategic licensing deal with publicly traded pot company Next Green Wave NXGWF (OTCMKTS). http://cellbased.link/intre8f5f9

Why we care: Intrexon's cell technology is groundbreaking and paving the way for a much broader set of advancements in cell based plant production beyond just cannabis. For now, Intrexon and Next Green Wave will reap some major benefits as high volume propagation of cannabis varietals could position both companies at the forefront of this massive industry.

Intrexon Tweeted: “Introducing Botticelli: A proprietary method to elicit a genotype-independent pluripotent response in plant cells or tissues that allows high-throughput plant regeneration. The platform moved from an internal research tool to significant focus in partnering conversations.” Simply, Intrexon realized the potential to license this cellular regeneration technology to plant based producers.

Investments

Thousand Oaks Biopharmaceuticals, a China based cell culture media manufacturer, raises $45 million in series A funding led by New Alliance Capital. http://cellbased.link/thousb3fdf

Regulation - First Missouri, up next Nebraska

Effective January 1st, if you write meat on a product sold in Missouri that is not derived from livestock or poultry you could be looking at up to one year in jail, a fine up to $2,000, or both. Keep reading ➡
http://cellbased.link/missob80f6

On January 10, Senator Carol Blood of Nebraska introduced a legislative bill to the agriculture committee "to provide for truth in advertising and labeling in the sale of meat and food plants." The bill states that "no person advertising, offering for sale, or selling meat or a food plan shall engage in any misleading or deceptive practices including misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from livestock or poultry." Set to become active on January 1st 2020, any violation of this bill is a Class I misdemeanor. [PDF]

Labeling Public Opinion

"Allergens are an important point to be addressed when establishing new labels for these products. In a molecular level, these products will contain the same tissue cells as conventional meat, which means that someone allergic to conventional meat would be allergic to cell-based meat as well. NASDA is most concerned at this point about fish cell-based meat products, as fish is one of the eight most well-known allergens." Nathan Bowen, NASDA Executive Director

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Strauss Group Ltd. (SGLJF), known internationally for their Sabra hummus, has a start up incubator called The Kitchen, part of the Strauss Group Alpha Venture Hub.

Need to know: The Kitchen incubator has an investment portfolio of companies that are actively shaping the future of food and alternative protein production processes. One noteworthy company, Aleph Farms, is developing cell based meat and focusing specifically on creating the worlds first lab grown steak. 

Why we care: This […]

Strauss Group Ltd. (SGLJF), known internationally for their Sabra hummus, has a start up incubator called The Kitchen, part of the Strauss Group Alpha Venture Hub.

Need to know: The Kitchen incubator has an investment portfolio of companies that are actively shaping the future of food and alternative protein production processes. One noteworthy company, Aleph Farms, is developing cell based meat and focusing specifically on creating the worlds first lab grown steak. 

Why we care: This week, Aleph Farms successfully created the first cell cultured steak. This is a major breakthrough, as other companies in the space have been unable to achieve the cellular matrix necessary to grow a complete steak -- ground beef or sausage structure have been the benchmark. According to the press release from the company, Aleph Farms has been able to develop their steak through a bio-engineering platform developed in collaboration with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa


[Religious] Publicity 

The Jewish National Sport of Debate on cell based meat is well underway! The question: will cell based meat follow the same kosher guidelines as conventional meat? http://cellbased.link/ebde5

Public Opinion

"No bones is a problem as it imparts a pretty direct effect on the flavor and texture of the meat. So we may see livestock becoming more boutique and upscale due to that." http://cellbased.link/l7c7a2

Rather than being threatened by impending technologies with cell based meat, Japanese Waygu beef rancher, Toriyama is excited about the prospects of making his high quality product more accessible globally. 

Need to know: Cell based meat producer, JUST and Japanese Waygu beef company, Toriyama Farm Ltd have entered into a partnership to use Waygu cell lines to produce cell based Waygu beef.

Why we care: What would you rather buy at the same affordable price? Conventionally produced meat OR […]

Rather than being threatened by impending technologies with cell based meat, Japanese Waygu beef rancher, Toriyama is excited about the prospects of making his high quality product more accessible globally. 

Need to know: Cell based meat producer, JUST and Japanese Waygu beef company, Toriyama Farm Ltd have entered into a partnership to use Waygu cell lines to produce cell based Waygu beef.

Why we care: What would you rather buy at the same affordable price? Conventionally produced meat OR the world's most tender beef engineered with the perfect balance of umami? http://cellbased.link/wagyu


Advancements

Cargill is pouring big money into the future of protein with a $70 million new headquarters in Witchita, Kansas -- designed to foster innovation and collaboration. While no specific areas of innovation were mentioned, we recall Cargill's interest in cell based meat with their 2017 investment in Memphis Meats.

http://cellbased.link/a16aca


Publicity

What's that wonderfully strong smell wafting from the Halal food truck in NYC? It could very well be an Impossible Burger! They just secured Halal certification. Coming to Royal Halal Grill soon! http://cellbased.link/dbcd6


The Great Label Debate

The Support

"The growing global population needs to become independent from large-scale animal agriculture. The environment cannot sustain the waste, methane, and CO2 emissions produced by factory farms." by Isabelle Lelogeais http://cellbased.link/l7c7a2

The Opposition

"Why label something made from chemicals and animal cells as meat? Meat is meat. It is harvested from an animal grown and protected by those of us who make it our business to raise cattle or other livestock and fish for human consumption." by Paul Symens http://cellbased.link/c3ec

CEO of Twist Bioscience (TWST), Emily Leproust, Ph.D is scheduled to present at Evercore ISI HealthCONx Conference on Thursday, November 29, 2018. You can watch live at 8:45am ET, or if you miss it you can watch it within 90 days here:  cellbased.link/tst223b1

Need to Know: Twist Bioscience manufactures synthetic DNA and boasts an impressive, proprietary silicone platform designed to synthesize genes at exponentially greater speeds than the current industry standard. This advanced technology is what landed TWST a massive […]

CEO of Twist Bioscience (TWST), Emily Leproust, Ph.D is scheduled to present at Evercore ISI HealthCONx Conference on Thursday, November 29, 2018. You can watch live at 8:45am ET, or if you miss it you can watch it within 90 days here:  cellbased.link/tst223b1

Need to Know: Twist Bioscience manufactures synthetic DNA and boasts an impressive, proprietary silicone platform designed to synthesize genes at exponentially greater speeds than the current industry standard. This advanced technology is what landed TWST a massive contract with Ginkgo Bioworks - supplying up to 1.3B base pairs of DNA over four years.

All that and more here if you'd like to read their HealthCONx Conference presentation or download below:


Advancements

Dr. Mark Kotter and The Cambridge Department of Clinical Neurosciences are partnering with Meatable to implement a new proprietary technique to convert pluripotent cells into bovine muscle and fat cells called OPTI-OX.

Before this conversion happens, Meatable extracts umbilical cord stem cells from a calf after birth and subsequently transcribes these cells into pluripotent stem cells. Dr. Kotter and Meatable believe that OPTI-OX will convert pluripotent cells into bovine muscle and fat cells significantly faster and with a high level of accuracy. https://www.varsity.co.uk/science/16612


Publicity

What do the top U.S. based cell based food startups have in common? Clara Foods, Geltor, Finless Foods, Memphis Meats, New Wave Foods, New Age Meats are all backed by the Biotech incubator, IndieBio -- the company establishing Silicon Valley as the leading biology hub in the world. http://cellbased.link/bloom80a34

Rethink Events is hosting Agri-Food Innovation Week in Singapore. Thursday’s agenda, will feature a segment on cell-based meat opportunities in Southeast Asia. Here’s the speaker lineup:


Regulation

The Italian Agricultural Association, Coldiretti, has expressed disdain towards cell based meat on the basis that 75% of Italians have a negative view of the product. The total data set was not provided. http://cellbased.link/b8e8d

Brooks Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKS) expands its Life Sciences division with its acquisition of Genewiz Group on November 15th. Brooks Life Sciences division specializes in cell tissue and harvesting collection as well as storage and transportation of live cell tissue. With the addition of Genewiz to the Life Sciences division, Brooks will add gene synthesis to their product offerings — a critical input for acellular production.

The Genewiz acquisition was announced just days prior to the Brooks Q4 earnings call […]

Brooks Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKS) expands its Life Sciences division with its acquisition of Genewiz Group on November 15th. Brooks Life Sciences division specializes in cell tissue and harvesting collection as well as storage and transportation of live cell tissue. With the addition of Genewiz to the Life Sciences division, Brooks will add gene synthesis to their product offerings -- a critical input for acellular production.

The Genewiz acquisition was announced just days prior to the Brooks Q4 earnings call on Monday the 19th. While earnings were below Wall Street expectations, the company's product portfolio demonstrates agility to evolve towards trends in the cell based production landscape. Brooks is expecting to close 2019 with the Life Sciences division accounting for more than 40% of the company's overall revenue. For the year, the company reported profit of $116.6 million, or $1.64 per share.

Investments

Not just any Prince of Saudi Arabia, Vegan Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed, broke his own personal rule of not investing in companies at the seed stage for the hot cell based startup, Geltor. Vegan Prince KBA talks more about his Geltor investment and involvement in Memphis Meats and JUST, INC in an exclusive interview with VegNews.

Advancements

A partnership between Perfect Day and Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) means cell based milk could fill your cereal bowls in 2019.  http://cellbased.link/ed1dd4

Regulation

On Friday, November 16th the USDA issued a press release stating both the USDA and FDA will jointly oversee the production of cell based meat products. The FDA will oversee cell collection and growth while the USDA will oversee cell harvesting and labeling. The press release refers to cell based meat as "food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry."  http://cellbased.link/2024f


The Great Label Debate!


The Support

"It should be labeled as what it is, meat, and all meat should be have a label detailing how it was produced. I do not want to be tricked into eating meat made in a dirty factory farm or slaughter house."

posted by Tommy Drake on http://cellbased.link/regul98c65

The Opposition

"Lab grown meat is not beef!"

posted by Kress Barton on http://cellbased.link/regul20396

Today is the Next Gen Good Food Forum in Beijing Zhongguancun, China. It’s hosted by Dao Ventures, a China based venture capital firm established to introduce alternative meat sources to China.

We’re not overwhelmingly excited about the agenda, and are left wondering who from China is going to be attending that is going to take the information and do something with it. If China pumps the money into this that it’s capable of, well who knows the possibilities (the […]

Today is the Next Gen Good Food Forum in Beijing Zhongguancun, China. It’s hosted by Dao Ventures, a China based venture capital firm established to introduce alternative meat sources to China.

We're not overwhelmingly excited about the agenda, and are left wondering who from China is going to be attending that is going to take the information and do something with it. If China pumps the money into this that it's capable of, well who knows the possibilities (the WeChat of cell based meat). The highlights are Shi Liu from BlackRock and New Crop Capital founding member, Chris Kerr (New Crop Capital has a plate full of cell based investments). 

China's been relatively quiet since the 300 million dollar trade agreement in 2017 with Israel. Why might cell based meat relevant to China now? Recent swine flu outbreaks certainly help the cause. 

Investments

Bye Bye Baby, Formula. Ginkgo Bioworks invests $14 million in Glycosyn LLC to scale production of human milk.  http://cellbased.link/a6ca5

Advancements

New Age Meats realized a 12x cost savings per sausage link since last month. http://cellbased.link/s7155d

Publicity

Tom Mastrobuoni of Tyson Ventures, Christie Lagally of Seattle Food Tech, and Thomas Bowman of JUST, Inc. discuss the future of meat at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit.  http://cellbased.link/cf9a7

Cell Based Meat goes to Hollywood, I mean Mars. So says Dr. Michele Perchonok, as part of Nat Geos show, Mars. Season 2 premiered on November 12th. http://cellbased.link/5330a 

Regulation

Unfortunately, many of the public comments about the USDA and FDA Joint Public Meeting on cell based meat production aren't effectively addressing the question, "How should cell based meat be labeled?"

Submit your comment and help influence the future of food. http://cellbased.link/regulations 

The Support

"[Cell based meat] classifies as meat based on the biology, but should be labeled to identify it as "cell-based" (or equivalent) meat for transparency, although I believe this distinction will become irrelevant once these products are fully accepted by consumers."

Sam Butler, posted on http://cellbased.link/regulations 

The Opposition

"Meat is made up of at least a dozen different cell types (e.g. fat cells, muscle, connective tissue), always in specific ratios necessary for life (this should be obvious). Cell cultures will never replicate this complexity and will inevitably lead to chronic disease of the humans consuming them due to the lack of our bodies to digest non-evolutionary foods. Maybe we can digest lab grown meat in 2 million years of evolution, but until then countless people will die if it is allowed into the food supply."

Matthew Klein, posted on http://cellbased.link/regulations