An Animal-free Cell Culture Media Formulation!
Mosa Meat, a Dutch company that develops cell-based meat, published a research paper last week detailing the process it took to develop an animal-free cell culture media formulation.
A cell culture media is the nutrient solution that contains a cell culture serum and supplies all the nutrients and growth factors that the cells (mammalians in particular) need to multiply or differentiate into a desired type of cell. Both the cost and scalability are the main bottlenecks that define the current problems in the cultured meat industry. It is a common practice in many labs and/or cultured meat companies to use the fetal bovine serum as a cell culture serum, not only because it is animal-sourced but also because it can vary from batch to batch, making it inconsistent as well as very expensive. Several animal-free serums have been developed for biopharmaceutical purposes, but the cost of scaling production remains a concern, a big concern.
Mosa Meat research group presented a protocol for differentiating stem cells into muscle cells without the use of fetal bovine serum or genetically altering them, and they also shared the serum-free media formulation. A breakthrough huh? According to Mosa Meat, the paper is a major milestone for the cell-based meat industry. The company has improved its cell culture media formulation and filed a patent.
Nearly all of the cultured meat companies are focused on scalability, and it will be interesting to see whether other companies follow Mosa Meat’s example and share their findings on cell culture media development or any other key scale-up challenges throughout the process.
