In May 2022 the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) and Ontario Genomics announced the winners of AcCELLerate-ON, Canada’s first regional cellular agriculture competition. Together the four recipients received more than $900,000 in funding to support the research and development of novel, viable and sustainable food production methods. The AcCELLerate-ON funding recipients and their projects are:
Ardra Inc.: The development of fermentation-based production of heme as a natural flavour ingredient.
Cell Ag Tech: The manufacturing of fish muscle stem cells from a 2D to 3D culture system with proteomic assessments of the cells
The University of Toronto’s Dr. Michael Garton in collaboration with Myo Palate: Establishing the foundational tools for cultivated pork production.
We checked in with the four companies to hear more about how their projects are progressing.
Please give us an update on your project. How are things progressing?
Ardra: The project is being carried out as per the plan and there has been significant improvement in terms of developing new strains for improvement of the heme titre. These new strains that are developed are being tested further in the fermentation trials to evaluate their performance in improving the final heme concentration. Along with the strain improvement, there is also development on the 30 L pilot scale fermentation trials. Several 30 L fermentation trails were carried out at the Lambton College facility. The fermentation output was further concentrated and purified at Lambton College and a novel precipitation method was developed to purify the heme and achieve the downstream processing. The heme that was produced at Lambton college was further tested analytically at Xerox Research Centre of Canada and University of Toronto, Biozone analytical testing facility. The analytical technique developed is used to identify heme and other heme-like compounds which are found in the final purified product. The next steps will be to continue testing the improved strains in the fermentation trails to evaluate the heme concentration and further testing these strains in the pilot scale, to confirm scale up and improved heme titre.
Cell Ag Tech: We are pleased to report significant progress in our project to scale-up the manufacturing of fish muscle stem cells from a 2D to 3D culture system with proteomic assessments of the cells. The scale-up portion of the project has been successfully completed. In collaboration with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), we have managed to grow our fish muscle stem cells in small bioreactors with significant proliferation. We’re very happy with the outcome of this phase of the project and look forward to building upon this success. As we move forward, our focus will shift to completing the omics-related activities for this project. We anticipate that this phase will be finalized within the next few months.
Evolved Meats: Our project is progressing well. We were able to not only create the world’s first porcine tissue that was both scaffold- and biomaterial-free, but we were also able to prove that we could automate the process of muscle fibre creation for scale up. In addition to this, we are in the final stages of building out a proteomics database for pork. As promised, once the database is complete, we will share it with others so that they can use the information to prove the similarity of their products against conventional pork products.
Dr. Michael Garton: Our project is progressing well, approximately in line with what we anticipated. We have produced a synthetic pig gene that causes a fluorescent protein to be expressed in response to slight increase in temperature (37°C to 42°C). We inserted this gene into pig stem cells and showed that they fluoresce green in response to heat elevation. This technology is a proof of concept that we can control pig cell gene expression using temperature. Using temperature to control gene expression is of course vastly cheaper than using expensive biological reagents, and this is critical to the reduction of meat production costs. We have also designed and produced a version of the gene where fluorescence is replaced with a critical component driving muscle production from pig stem cells. Stay tuned!
How has the funding impacted this project?
Ardra: The funding has been crucial in helping us develop our process for heme production. We are now able to make samples of our product, and have started sending samples for customer validation. Getting validation from customers is an important first step towards commercialization of the product, and is an important milestone before we start scaling-up the process further.
Cell Ag Tech: The funding provided by CFIN has been instrumental in the success of our project. The financial support enabled us to move forward with a project that may have otherwise been untenable due to the high costs associated with cell-culture scale up. The funding also facilitated the establishment of a valuable relationship with a key partner, the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) and allowed us to execute the project thoroughly.
Evolved Meat: The funding we received through this program allowed us to commit the necessary resources towards establishing a proteomics database for pork. Without the funding, we would not have been able to establish the underpinnings of that database.
Garton: This project would certainly not have been possible without the funding provided by CFIN and Ontario genomics. It has enabled us to focus a highly experienced team including experts in gene cloning and stem cell differentiation and to deliver the key milestones on schedule. Our team is growing and we expect this to be the start of a very significant advancement in integrating synthetic biology and cell agriculture.
What’s changed for the company in the past year?
Ardra: Company has achieved several important milestones in the last year including successful fundraising from BioIndustrial Innovation Canada to support our technology pipeline, initiating scale-up studies (5,000 L fermentation) of our flavour ingredient leaf-aldehyde, and hiring a Business Development Lead, who brings in decades of experience in sales and marketing of food ingredients.
Cell Ag Tech: The last year has been very exciting for Cell Ag Tech. In addition to developing a cooked white fish fillet prototype, we’ve made great technical progress with our immortalized cell lines, medium and cell manufacturing process. All these elements have come together to lay the foundation for commercial production. In addition, we’re proud to have been awarded non-dilutive funding from NRC-IRAP and have welcomed a few new members to our team.
Evolved Meats: A number of things have changed for the company over the last year. Namely: we filed three new patents, one of which was granted; we ran proof of concepts with three leading, global cultivated meat companies, and we are signing a JDA with the first group now; we created multiple world’s firsts for scaffold- and biomaterial-free tissue, inclusive of samples using porcine, avian, ovine, and bovine cells; we created the world’s first automation testbed for turning cell sheets into muscle fibres; and we spoke about alternative proteins at the 2022 APEC CEO Summit in Bangkok (we were on stage after U.S. vice president Kamala Harris; we presented alongside the CEO of CP Foods, a top five global food company, and the former CEO of Greenpeace).
Myo Palate: Myo Palate has been developing and expanding its embryonic cell lines for cultivated meat production. In the last year, we have created meatball prototypes using embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, our embryonic cell line and development method is patent pending. Myo Palate is also renovating a 16,000-sq.-ft. facility in downtown Toronto to expand research capabilities and further foster academic collaborations. The new facility will include cleanrooms, dedicated bioreactor space, and a microbiology suite.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the cellular food industry?
Ardra: The cellular food industry allows for 1) sustainable production of food, 2) strengthens local supply-chains, and 3) offers ways to make novel food products and ingredients. Given these advantages it will inevitably be a part of our future food value-chain.
Cell Ag Tech: The cellular agriculture industry is currently at a pivotal moment. With the concept of producing cell cultured meat and seafood now proven, the focus has shifted to optimization, manufacturing scale up, and reducing the cost of goods sold (COGS) to achieve commercial viability. In the interim, it’s imperative that companies concentrate on these aspects, as they will play a vital role in making cell cultured meat and seafood products competitive with traditional animal-derived products currently on the market. Additionally, we’re seeing rapid growth in the ecosystem of supportive technologies and vendors (for example, growth factors, contract manufacturing facilities, commercialization partners, etc.). These developments are crucial for the industry’s advancement, as it enables companies to access the tools, resources, and expertise necessary to overcome the major challenges facing the industry. Unfortunately, at the same time it’s become more difficult to access capital due to the current macroeconomic environment. For the industry to move forward, it’s essential to ensure that adequate capital is available to fuel this phase of the industry’s development and growth. Capital from investors and non-dilutive sources is vital for the industry to fulfill its full potential.
Evolved Meats: The cellular food industry is in its very early days. A lot of progress is being made on proliferating cells using serum-free media, but the bioprocess itself has barely been innovated on. Significant advances will need to be made on that front in order for cell agriculture to actually penetrate the broader consumer market. In addition to that, we think that grouping all cell ag products in the same bucket is going to be harmful over time. Most current products are not structurally or biochemically identical to conventional meat. Instead, they use a high proportion of plant proteins and other biomaterials within their end products. Based on proxies, consumers are not interested in hybrids. We think that the only way cultivated meat will succeed is to create products that are 100% cell-based.
Garton: Cellular food answers an incredibly important environmental question and is rightly garnering huge interest from government and the general public. By far the biggest challenge is reducing cost to compete with conventional meat products, and the advances we are making in synthetic biology are poised to facilitate that very significantly.
Are you looking for new partners or collaborators? If so, who would be the perfect partner?
Ardra: We are looking for new partners and collaborators. Our ideal partners would be food processing companies that are seeking novel food ingredients (flavours, colours and nutritional ingredients), and natural ingredients for their formulations. The company is also seeking partners that have large scale flavour production equipment in Canada for contract manufacturing.
Cell Ag Tech: We are always open to forming new partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organizations that share our goal of supplying the world with sustainable and delicious cell-cultured seafood. Ideal partners would include investors who are willing to provide financial support to help us complete development and finalize preparations for commercialization. Of course, we also welcome non-dilutive funding sources and would appreciate the opportunity to connect with government and other organizations supporting the industry. We’re also open to collaborating with strategic partners that align with our mission and can contribute valuable resources and expertise. Lastly, we are interested in collaborating with commercialization partners who can help us navigate the path to market, providing support in areas such as marketing, sales, and distribution in different markets around the world.
Evolved Meats: Our ideal partner profile is as follows: a cultivated meat company that has an established, well characterized cell line (cells can be anything from pluripotent to unipotent); that has a consistent bioprocess to proliferate those cells; that understands how to differentiate those cells; and that, typically, the company has raised >$50-100M and they are starting to consider tissue engineering.
Myo Palate: Myo Palate is actively engaged in multiple academic and industrial partnerships and have found these collaborations to be extremely fruitful. At Myo Palate’s next stage, we hope to collaborate with downstream meat processors to start tailoring meat output for processing requirements.
What’s next for the company?
Ardra: The company’s current focus is on bringing its most developed products to market to reach revenues, along with pushing the development of novel ingredients such as heme further.
Cell Ag Tech: We’re currently raising a round of financing to complete development and finalize preparations for regulatory approval, commercial production, and sales.
Evolved Meats: In terms of next steps, we plan to create a proprietary, small-size bioreactor to produce multiple cell sheets at the same time (proof of concept is complete, and the provisional patent will be filed in 2023 Q2). We will also begin work with our JDA partner on a world’s first sample, and continue developing our IP moat around the use of cell sheets.
Myo Palate: Myo Palate is getting ready to move to its new space and ramp up production at a laboratory scale.