SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to address challenges of animal farming through cell-based meat production. Approximately 30% of the Earth’s surface, 70% of all arable land, and 29% of the global freshwater supply is dedicated to animal farming. Livestock is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is a major threat to biodiversity. 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are used on farm animals and contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Cell-based meat development is estimated to generate significant reductions in greenhouse gases and use of land, water, and energy, as well as antibiotics in meat production. The proposed project aims to develop novel technologies that will accelerate cell-based meat development.The proposed project develops a novel scaffolding material for the generation of animal tissue, specifically skeletal muscle. The proposed project will ultimately advance current scientific knowledge on the mechanisms underlying tissue generation and elucidate the molecular principles governing cell adhesion, differentiation, and growth of animal cells during tissue development. Key technical objectives include demonstrating that the proposed scaffold can be successfully customized to harbor any cell adhesion molecule of interest, and proving that a novel biomaterial can be adapted as a tissue-culture-grade reagent. Fluorescence microscopy will be used to ascertain the extent of animal cell adhesion and growth on the proposed scaffold. These studies will advance understanding of animal cell interactions with their extracellular milieu, and how environmental molecular properties and cues are tuned to influence de novo tissue development in vitro.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to combat the profound negative impacts of the animal farming industry through the development of new technologies to advance cultivated meat production. Approximately 30% of the Earth?s surface, 70% of all arable land, and 29% of the global freshwater supply is dedicated to animal farming. Livestock is responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the largest threats to earth?s biodiversity. A significant fraction (70%) of all antibiotics used in the United States are used on farm animals and this is a primary cause of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, leaving the United States with an economic burden of $55 billion and a healthcare system overwhelmed with 2,000,000 infections, 250,000 hospitalizations, and at least 23,000 deaths per year. An emerging industry poised to combat the negative impacts of animal farming is the cultivated meat industry, which is estimated to decrease energy use by 7-45%, greenhouse gases by 78-96%, land use by 99%, water use by 82-96%, and could eliminate the need for antibiotics use in meat production. The project aims to further develop a novel technology that will allow for the economically feasible production of cultivated meat.The proposed project aims to solve one of the major barriers impeding the economic feasibility of cultivated meat ? cell culture media cost. Cultivated meat must be priced competitively with conventional meat if it is to be a viable alternative to meat produced via industrial farming. Thus, as with animal feed, cell culture media must be as inexpensive as grass or government-subsidized corn to allow for the production of cultivated meat at a comparable profit margin. The goal of this project focuses on reducing media costs by eliminating expensive media components through further development of proprietary scaffolding technology and reducing the overall volume of media required to generate cultivated meat through the adaptation of ultra-efficient, high-density bioreactors. To do this, the scaffolding technology generated during the Phase I effort will be further developed to incorporate growth factors, the most expensive elements of cell culture media, thereby reducing the overall cost of media. Then, the scaffolds will be adapted for use in high-density, perfusion-based bioreactors that use a fraction of the media as conventional stirred-tank bioreactors, thereby reducing the overall consumption of media. Together, these two strategies will lower the overall cost of cultivated meat production.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.