
Elliot Swartz, Ph.D.
LEAD SCIENTIST, CULTIVATED MEAT
Elliot Swartz analyzes scientific progress and bottlenecks in cultivated meat.
Areas of expertise: stem cell biology, neuroscience, cultivated meat.
Elliot holds a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience from Lehigh University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He formerly worked with induced pluripotent stem cells to model neuromuscular disease and as a consultant in drug discovery for neurodegenerative disease. Elliot’s work at GFI focuses on accelerating the cultivated meat industry by analyzing the intersection of diverse scientific disciplines with cultivated meat, driving key GFI-sponsored research projects in cultivated meat, and educating scientists, the public, and other industry stakeholders.
Video

Cultured Meat Symposium: Policy and regulation
Dr. Elliot Swartz maps the key safety considerations, risk assessments, and testing recommendations for cultivated meat manufacturing.

Food safety considerations in cultivated meat
In this webinar, recorded in June 2020, GFIers David Welch and Elliot Swartz discuss food safety considerations for cultivated meat.

Impact.Tech cellular agriculture seminar series
Impact.tech Fifty Years’ seminar series on cellular agriculture, presented by Dr. Elliot Swartz, explores the major breakthroughs in cultivated meat and lays out how investors and entrepreneurs can get involved.
Podcasts

The future of eating meat with Elliot Swartz
Kyle Thierman interviews Dr. Elliot Swartz about his background in behavioral neuroscience and regenerative medicine and discusses his work advancing alternative proteins at GFI.

Bottlenecks to the scale-up of cultured and plant-based meat
Jamie Harris of the Sentience Institute speaks with Dr. Elliot Swartz about the science of plant-based and cultivated meat, technical barriers to scaling, and professional opportunities in alternative proteins.

The Good Food Institute: Doing a world of good
GFIers Allison Berke, Liz Specht, and Elliot Swartz discuss the development of plant-based and cell-based meat products.
Around the web

Is the future cultivated meat?
Dr. Elliot Swartz explains the basics of cultivated meat and lays out why this new form of meat production is a crucial innovation.

The future of protein?
GFI scientist Dr. Elliot Swartz speaks about GFI’s work to create a sustainable, secure, and just food system with University of California, Santa Barbara’s Jacqueline Wen.
Publications

The business of cultured meat
GFI’s Dr. Elliot Swartz writes about the geographical spread of cultivated meat companies, the funding landscape, and commercialization challenges.

Meeting the needs of the cell-based meat industry
Dr. Elliot Swartz discusses how commercializing cost-competitive cultivated meat will create new challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnologists.
Featured blogs

Calling all scientists — the cultivated meat industry needs your expertise
In order to reach cost parity with conventional meat, the cultivated meat industry will require additional participation from scientists in both industry and academia.

Introducing a collaborative database of cultivated meat research tools and protocols
GFI’s Cultivated Meat Research Tool Directory crowdsources resources to help researchers find the information they need to carry out cultivated meat research and development.