Towards sustainable cultured meat production by developing a novel biocatalyst

通过开发新型生物催化剂实现可持续的培养肉生产

• 批准号: BB/Y007859/1
• 负责人: Hua Ye
• 金额: $ 145.37万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FY007859%2F1
• 关键词: Towards; sustainable; cultured; meat; production

The global meat consumption is substantial, with the average person consuming 45 kg of meat per year, and meat comprising 18% of the global food supply. This demand led to the slaughter of 80 billion animals in 2018, resulting in 340 million tons of meat production. However, despite animal-derived products providing only 17% of global food and 40-58% of proteins, animal agriculture has a disproportionate environmental impact. It occupies 77% of agricultural lands, utilizes 30% of water resources, and contributes 12-20% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns about meat consumption extend beyond environmental impacts. Epidemics like swine flu and avian flu have raised health concerns, and the use of antibiotics in the meat industry has led to antibiotic resistance in bacteria.Cultured meat, also known as lab-grown or cell-cultured meat, has emerged as a potential solution to address sustainability challenges associated with traditional animal farming. The process involves isolating animal cells and allowing them to proliferate in a culture medium within a bioreactor. The cells differentiate into specialized cell types found in meat, and the matured cultured meat can be harvested, processed, and used to create various meat-based products. Currently, only Singapore and the US have approved the sale of cultured meat products, but their availability is limited due to high production costs and retail prices. The analysis indicates that the cell culture medium constitutes the majority of the costs, primarily attributed to the more expensive components such as recombinant proteins, essential amino acids, and growth factors.Studies have shown that cultured meat has the potential to significantly reduce energy, land, and water use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, however, recent research indicates that cultured meat may still have higher emissions than pork and poultry but considerably lower emissions compared to beef, primarily due to the production of the culture medium ingredients and energy use in bioreactors. The current research project's objective is to develop a simple cell (SimCell) -based biocatalyst that can convert metabolic wastes from animal cell culture, including ammonia and lactic acid, into those more expensive components such as essential amino acids and growth factors. SimCells are modified bacteria cells which cannot reproduce themselves but can perform certain functions as instructed by the designed gene circuits. The SimCells will then be placed in the animal cell culture bioreactor to convert the wastes into feed, which means less amount of cell culture medium need to be replaced, leading to reduced production cost and amount of waste. This project aims to enhance the sustainability of cultured meat production by reducing costs, improving resource efficiency, and potentially lowering environmental impacts.

全球肉类消费量巨大，平均每人每年消费45公斤肉类，肉类占全球食品供应的18%。这一需求导致2018年屠宰了800亿头动物，导致肉类产量达到3.4亿吨。然而，尽管动物源性产品仅提供全球食物的 17% 和蛋白质的 40-58%，但畜牧业却对环境产生了不成比例的影响。它占据了77%的农业用地，利用了30%的水资源，并贡献了12-20%的人类温室气体排放。对肉类消费的担忧不仅仅限于环境影响。猪流感和禽流感等流行病引发了健康问题，肉类工业中抗生素的使用导致细菌产生抗生素耐药性。培养肉，也称为实验室种植或细胞培养肉，已成为一种潜在的解决方案解决与传统畜牧业相关的可持续性挑战。该过程涉及分离动物细胞并允许它们在生物反应器内的培养基中增殖。这些细胞分化成肉类中的特殊细胞类型，成熟的培养肉可以收获、加工并用于制造各种肉类产品。目前，只有新加坡和美国批准销售培养肉产品，但由于生产成本和零售价格较高，其供应量有限。分析表明，细胞培养基构成了大部分成本，主要归因于更昂贵的成分，如重组蛋白、必需氨基酸和生长因子。研究表明，培养肉有可能显着减少能源、土地然而，最近的研究表明，养殖肉的排放量可能仍高于猪肉和家禽，但与牛肉相比排放量要低得多，这主要是由于培养基成分的生产和能源使用在生物反应器中。当前研究项目的目标是开发一种基于简单细胞（SimCell）的生物催化剂，可以将动物细胞培养物中的代谢废物（包括氨和乳酸）转化为更昂贵的成分，例如必需氨基酸和生长因子。 SimCells 是经过修饰的细菌细胞，它们不能自我繁殖，但可以按照设计的基因电路的指示执行某些功能。然后将 SimCell 放入动物细胞培养生物反应器中，将废物转化为饲料，这意味着需要更换的细胞培养基量减少，从而降低生产成本和废物量。该项目旨在通过降低成本、提高资源效率和潜在地降低环境影响来增强养殖肉生产的可持续性。