Future Fields, a Canadian cell-cultured startup based in Edmonton, has raised US$2.2M from three American venture capital firms — Bee Partners, Pioneer Fund, and Narrative Fund. Several private investors also contributed.
Omeat Develops Slaughter-Free FBS Alternative From Bovine-Plasma
Omeat is a cultivated meat company established in Los Angeles, California, founded by world-renowned tissue engineer and former MIT and Harvard professor Dr. Ali Khademhosseini. The company aims to grow “delicious real meat” from animal cells but without the environmental impact of traditional farming. After years of working behind the scenes, Omeat revealed an alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) made with the bovine plasma of healthy cows. FBS is an ethically controversial and …
Mewery Develops “World’s First” Prototype Based on Cultivated Pork and Microalgae
In October 2022, Czech cultivated pork startup Mewery announced it had obtained the proof of concept for growing mammalian cells using microalgae growth factors instead of fetal bovine serum. Just a few months later, after proving the feasibility of its cultivation process, Mewery announces the successful development of a cultivated pork prototype using its proprietary microalgae-based growth medium. An important milestone for the company, which claims that its medium saves …
The Companies Removing Fetal Bovine Serum to Make Ethical, Slaughter-Free Meat
Last week, GOOD Meat received the first-in-the-world regulatory approval to use fetal bovine serum-free media in its cultivated poultry production process. With this significant milestone in the history of cultivated meat, we discuss the companies paving the way for ethical, slaughter-free meat. Removing fetal bovine serum (FBS) from cultivated meat production has been among the industry’s major challenges. FBS has been the default growth supplement for in vitro cell culture used by …
IntegriCulture Becomes First to Cultivate Cells Without Animal Serum at 1/60th of Cost
IntegriCulture Inc. claims to have performed the first successful cultivation of chicken and duck liver-derived cells in an animal serum-free basal medium. Using the company’s proprietary CulNet system the cost has been estimated to be just 1/60th compared to when using a conventional animal serum. IntegriCulture claims to have successfully replaced all research-grade materials with food materials to achieve functional equivalence at such a reduced cost. The Japanese biotech also …
Opalia’s Animal-Free Milk Closer to Launch After Removal of Fetal Bovine Serum
Opalia’s animal-free milk is now closer to commercialisation after the Canadian company replaced its cell culture medium, fetal bovine serum (FBS), with a non-animal-derived alternative. FBS comes from the placenta of pregnant cows, making it a controversial ingredient in products that are intended to be animal-free. The serum is also expensive, prone to contamination, and highly variable between batches. But now, Opalia has found a replacement substrate that is FDA-approved, …
South Korea’s CellMEAT Produces Cell Culture Medium Without Fetal Bovine Serum
South Korean company CellMEAT‘s new product, a cell culture medium without foetal bovine serum, will help reduce the production costs of cultured meat and circumvent ethical concerns within the cultured meat industry. CellMEAT recently announced a pre-series A funding round of $4.5 million. CellMEAT was selected as a participant in the Tech Incubator programme for startups in 2019. Recognised for its technical developments that could lead to more sustainable cultured …
New Stem Cell Lines That Can Be Grown Without Serum Could Slash the Cost of Cultivated Meat
Scientists obtain animal stem cells that can be grown without serum, with the potential to dramatically reduce the production costs of cultivated meat. Researchers from the University of Nottingham‘s School of Biosciences, in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge, Exeter, Tokyo, and Meiji, have developed stem cell lines that can be grown under chemically defined conditions. This breakthrough could make it possible to produce cultivated meat without serum, feeder cells, …