
Alternative Protein Solutions Database
Discover ideas for new startups, commercial ventures and products, research projects, ecosystem support, and investment opportunities for plant-based, cultivated, and fermentation-derived proteins.
Opportunity | Production platform | Solution category | Value chain segment | Technology sector | Maturity level |
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Production process innovations for fiber formation and improved plant protein texturization
Fibers from techniques like electrospinning, jet spinning, or blow spinning may be able to impart a desirable texture to a given product. |
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Commercial Research | End Products Production R&D | End product formulation & manufacturing | 2 – Early adoption |
Improving efficiency and assessment of adaptation to suspension growth
Improving methods for adapting cells to suspension culture can facilitate cell line development and bioprocess design for cultivated meat. |
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Research | R&D | Bioprocess design Cell line development | 1 – Inception |
Species-specific genomic studies enabling assay development for regulatory standards and cell line optimization
A suite of assays and genomic knowledge exists for humans and commonly used laboratory species such as mice or fruit flies. However, the same species-specific infrastructure does not exist equally… |
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Research | R&D | Cell line development | |
Guidelines for cultivated meat starter cell selection
Improving our understanding of the relative advantages and disadvantages of different cell types for cultivated meat would enable companies to make these decisions more effectively with less duplicative effort. |
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Research | R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell line development | 1 – Inception |
Mapping the secretome of animal myoblasts, adipocytes, and other cells used in cultivated meat
Stem cells secrete a variety of signaling factors that can influence the behavior of surrounding cells, known as paracrine signals. In high-density bioprocesses, these secreted factors can accumulate to concentrations… |
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Research | Production R&D | Cell line development | |
Microbial strain-development contract research organizations for alternative protein applications
While emerging fermentation-derived ingredient companies often optimize their strain’s productivity in-house, it may be more efficacious for startups to engage contract research organizations with both deep microbial strain development expertise… |
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Commercial Ecosystem Research | R&D | Host strain development | |
Plants as a recombinant protein expression platform for functional food ingredients
Crop plants used as recombinant protein production hosts could offer benefits of minimal processing, cheaper equipment, and fewer downstream purification costs. |
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Commercial Research | Production R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Crop development Ingredient optimization | 2 – Early adoption |
Species-specific research toolkits for cultivated meat-relevant species
Coordinated efforts to develop standardized, comprehensive research toolkits of meat-relevant species would exponentially accelerate cultivated meat research. |
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Commercial Ecosystem Research | Compliance R&D | Cell culture media Cell line development End product formulation & manufacturing | |
Developing open-access model production facility blueprints
Open-access blueprints would provide a head start on facility design and allow equipment manufacturers and engineering companies to address standard industry needs. |
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Commercial Research | Production R&D | Bioprocess design End product formulation & manufacturing | 1 – Inception |
Systematic investigation of growth factor needs and effects
Open-access research into growth factors required for proliferation, maintenance, and differentiation of cell types relevant to cultivated meat will support both academic and industry research efforts. This research could include… |
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Research | R&D Raw Materials, Ingredients, & Inputs | Cell culture media Target molecule selection |
Get involved
If you’d like to fund a research project, work on any of these solutions, share information about related efforts that are already underway, or elevate new ideas for advancing the alternative protein industry, we’d love to hear from you!

Explore key innovation priorities
Review commercial whitespaces, research gaps, technological needs, and investment priorities at each stage of the alternative protein value chain.
How we built this

Full report
Delve into the full report on the motivation, methodology, rationale, and key findings and recommendations of the Solutions initiative.

Futures wheels analysis
Explore our framework for uncovering second-order or third-order consequences and implications of hypothetical future scenarios to support better decision-making in the present.

Future-proofing
Discover key findings from GFI’s premortem analysis of potential threats to the widespread adoption of alternative proteins, including strategies to avoid or mitigate the most pressing risks.