| Project Detail |
Whilst meat demand is expected to double by 2050, consumption needs to drop by 50% to reduce greenhouse gases and preserve land. Cultivated meat - meat products manufactured through the harvesting and proliferation of animal cells - offers a feasible alternative, supplying animal protein at minimal environmental costs. However, the industry faces significant challenges linked to production costs, ability to scale-up, and final product quality. The main technical bottlenecks arise from the need to continuously source cells from live animals, and inefficient differentiation and maturation processes, that fail to achieve nutritional and organoleptic characteristics to satisfy consumers. Harnessing unique expertise on muscle cultivation, ProFuse has developed the first spontaneously immortalized and stable myoblast cell line (bovine) with remarkable proficiency in both muscle tissue proliferation and differentiation. Secondly, ProFuse has formulated a media supplement capable of driving the highly effective fusion and maturation into contractile muscle, successfully mimicking natural muscle development. After receiving the licensing of the patent protecting the discovery and the incorporation of our start-up for boosting development and commercialization, our team has established strong relationships with worldwide leading cultivated meat producers and suppliers, developing initial supplement formulations for different 2D and 3D applications. Through this project, we aim at optimizing our combined cell-line + supplement solution for scale-up enabling 3D production techniques up to reaching the validation in relevant environment with at least 3 potential clients while preparing the certification dossier, thus bringing our combined cell-line + supplement solution to TRL6. ProFuse will transform the scale-up potential and quality of final cultivated meat products, fast forwarding the industry to high uptake scenarios. |
