Aloe vera is a widely used plant found in hundreds of products

Most commercial aloe cultivation has been offshored. U.S. Manufacturers of aloe containing products must import this crop but this material often has issues with seasonal variation, dilution, contamination with pesticides, and even adulteration. Additionally, aloe produces carcinogens, such as aloin, that must be removed before use through costly processing steps. We aim to solve the current issues with aloe by the development of a commercial aloe vera plant cell culture. The liquid culture of plants is an established technology in which plants are grown as a fine suspension of small clumps or single cells. Unlike aloe vera plants, an aloe cell culture can be domestically-produced in a safe and high quality way without pesticides or adulterants. Aloe cell culture also allows the application of techniques to isolate aloe cell lines that do not produce the carcinogen aloin. CHI botanic has recently established an aloe cell culture. During this grant period we will be refining our downstream processing techniques, improving the composition of new cell lines usingculture optimization methods commonly used to optimize growth of microorganisms, and applying gene editing to create cell lines that are disrupted in the ability to make the aloe toxin. This research will establish aloe cell culture technology as a newinnovative, more sustainable, and domestic way to produce products from aloe vera.