Insilico Biotechnology has brought its artificial intelligence (AI) platform and expertise in metabolic modeling to the Cultivated Meat Modeling Consortium (CMMC), a subsidiary of Biocellion SPC, a Washington State Social Purpose Corporation. Insilico’s technology is aimed at reducing the high cost of culture media used to produce meat in cell culture.
To date, the largest cost burden in the cultivating meat industry is the culture media used to grow meat cells. The goal of the recently formed CMMC from industry and academia is to address challenges in cultivated meat industry through the application of computer modeling and simulation.
Insilico brings its Digital Twins technology to the CMMC to optimise culture media composition and feeding strategies, thus reducing these costs and making commercial production of clean meat economically feasible.
One challenge in commercial production of clean meat is the need to balance cells’ consumption of nutrients to produce meat at a competitive price. This requires the smart design of nutrient composition in the culture media to just meet the needs of the cells. Thus, growth is maximized without accumulation of excess nutrients in the media.
Another challenge is the need to create large quantities of meat. In most laboratories, only small-scale experiments are performed to demonstrate feasibility. On the much larger scale required for commercial production, the mixing behaviour of media and cell culture differ, which can lead to cells becoming detached from carrier materials and a local shortage of vital oxygen. While creating large quantities requires translating laboratory successes to this different environment, Insilico added that physical experimentation is cost-prohibitive. Computer models of behaviour at laboratory scale are simulated and validated. Running many small-scale simulations then generates data that can be used to estimate larger-scale behaviours using model components that form Digital Twins.
Klaus Mauch, CEO of Insilico, said: “We anticipate that cultivated meat production on a commercial scale would be a promising solution to meet the increasing demand for proteins by the growing world population. We are pleased to use our experience in cell culture feeding and media design to contribute along with the CMMC to overcome the high production cost of cultivated meat making it affordable.”
