Sbir phase i: development of commercially viable cell lines for cultivated fish via bioengineering

Federal Grant Award Summary

Atlantic Fish Corporation received a $305,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084), effective October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026. The project focuses on developing commercially viable cell lines for cultivated fish through bioengineering to enable scalable cellular seafood production. The company will conduct three primary research objectives: (1) transcriptomics and pathway enrichment analysis to identify key genetic targets for muscle-forming fish cells, (2) food-safe bioengineering techniques to confirm and modify target gene expression, and (3) demonstration of efficacy in a pilot production system. The initiative aims to improve cell growth rates and maximum cell density in bioreactor suspension cultures, ultimately achieving faster proliferation and higher density than current approaches.

The project addresses a significant commercial and national need by providing an alternative to wild-caught fisheries, of which 90% are at or exceed capacity. The cultivated seafood product offers quality and safety advantages over traditional aquaculture, including elimination of mercury, antibiotics, and microplastics, while leveraging scalable energy sources such as glucose derived from corn. This innovation is intended to supplement domestic seafood production and reduce America's reliance on imports, as the seafood market represents approximately 17% of global animal protein consumption and currently depends on imports for 70–85% of the $28 billion U.S. domestic seafood market.

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this small business innovation research (sbir) phase i project is a novel means of producing seafood products. The method provides an alternative meat production to wild-caught fisheries of which 90% are at or exceed capacity, with many premium species lacking viable aquaculture models. This novel method of cellular seafood agriculture produces fish meat by growing only the required product such as muscle and FAT, using scalable energy sources (e.g. glucose made from corn). The process involves expanding cells in a bioreactor and differentiation, followed by assembly, to produce seafood with no mercury, antibiotics, or microplastics. The initiative aims to supplement domestic seafood production representing one the most widely eaten animal proteins in the world accounting for 17% of all animal protein consumption, while reducing america?s reliance on imports across the $28B domestic seafood market of which 70-85% is imported. This small business innovation research (sbir) phase i project aims to develop cellular agriculture in a scalable manner to meet cost and quality requirements. The proposed activities will improve the growth rate (cells per time) and maximum density (cells per volume) of specific cell lines in bioreactors. The overall goal is to promote the rapid and efficient proliferation of muscle-forming fish cell lines in suspension culture. This will be accomplished through (objective 1) transcriptomics and pathway enrichment analysis to identify key genetic targets, (objective 2), food-safe bioengineering techniques to confirm and modify the expression of these targets and finally (objective 3) demonstrate efficacy in a pilot production system. This aims to achieve faster growth and higher density than current approaches (allowing desirable traits to spontaneously arise), to greatly improve the unit economics of cellular agriculture. The results from this project will serve as the foundation for future larger efforts to engineer cell lines optimizing growth rate, taste and preparation characteristics at cost and scale for cultivated fish. 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.- subawards are not planned for this award.