Removing metabolites for high-density cell growth

Project aims

Mammalian cells have been ubiquitously utilized by the biopharmaceutical industry for decades. This project will utilize learnings from this field to modify a model bovine cultivated meat cell line for improved behavior. This cell line will be adapted to grow in suspension culture, allowing growth in 3D–rather than 2D–culture, unlocking process intensification to decrease cost without necessitating a large facility footprint. The research team will additionally translate a validated genetic engineering workflow from mammalian cell lines used by biopharma to this bovine cell line and subsequently use it to eliminate lactate and ammonia production, the main waste metabolites. The removal of these waste metabolites will increase the maximum amount of cells that can be grown in culture, further decreasing cost. Ultimately, this cell line will be a starting “chassis strain” upon which additional genetic engineering efforts can be applied towards other desirable phenotypes, and process intensification/optimization efforts can begin from an advantaged starting point.