Issue: in the coming decades, cell-cultured meat is expected to play a significant role in the development of sustainable climate-friendly food systems to feed the growing population

Analysis of beef production finds that switching from conventional to cultured beef production could result in a 95% reduction in land use and 92% reduction in carbon footprint. However, to realize these impacts new innovations in cell-culture infrastructure are needed to address in the cost inefficiencies and scalability issues that currently hinder commercial progress in this market. Further, technical challenges remain with producing cultured meat that mimics the structured and thick characteristics of authentic meat products.approach: cytonest will address these gaps by developing a new cell culture system that enables the cost-effective generation of cultured meat products that mimic the texture and structure of authentic whole-cut meats. The proposed scaffolding technology offers customizable parameters, allowing the cultivation of meat with varying properties. The system is able to support the weeks-long cell culture process at high volume, making the technology well-positioned for commercial-scale cultured meat production. In this project, cytonest will experiment with different edible scaffold materials (material that meat is grown on) in an effort to improve the sensory properties of cultivated meat while still maintaining scalability. The company will also investigate different orientations and parameters of the scaffold and the effect on meat structure development, for example, the amount of muscle/FAT generated. Lastly, cytonest will demonstrate scalability and proof of concept with the cultivation of immortalized bovine satellite cells (beef).ultimate goals: successful completion of these objectives will prepare cytonest for future work focused on implementing the proposed technology at scale and demonstrating proof of concept with whole cut meat cultivation. Long-term, this technology will be extended for the development of cultured meat products, delivering a platform of scaffolds with meat-specific (e.g., beef, pork, poultry, salmon) architectures to support the growth of tissue structures mimicking those of the represented meat products. Beyond the cell-cultured meat market, we also anticipate applications for our 3D scaffolds in cellular therapeutics.