Scalable, accessible bovine fat cells
2026 – 2028
This project engineers immortalized bovine fat cells for single-cell suspension growth and reduced metabolic waste in long-term serum-free cultures.
Production platform: Cultivated
Technology sector: Cell culture media, Cell line development
Project aims
Widely available, scalable, efficient, and engineerable cell lines that are accessible by both industry and academia are essential for accelerating and compounding progress in cultivated meat R&D. In this project, bovine fat cell lines will be developed with the following aims:
Aim 1: Immortalized bovine fat cells will be engineered to grow in single-cell suspension through the use of off-patent genetic engineering strategies that allow for broad cell distribution. Cells will be deposited in the Tufts University open-access cell bank.
Aim 2: Suspension cells will be cultured in serum-containing and serum-free media under various feeding regimes, and cellular changes will be monitored to infer the long-term effects of different media formulations and bioprocess strategies.
Aim 3: Cells will be engineered to express a lactate-consuming fusion enzyme (either internally retained or secreted) which can reduce waste-metabolite accumulation while maintaining cellular redox balance. Effects on cell culture will be assessed.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Andrew Stout
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Tufts University, United States
Dr. Andrew Stout is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University, where his research focuses on cell line engineering for cultivated meat. He previously served as the co-founder and CSO of cellular agriculture startup Deco Labs, Inc., and obtained his PhD from Tufts University under a New Harvest Fellowship.
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