Utilizing Enzymatic Microalgae Hydrolysates for Cellular Agriculture

Introduction

UPSIDE Foods is working to produce chicken products to address the growing global food insecurity crisis.1 Industrial scalability is limited due to the requirements of cell culture. Through collaboration with the company, we are working to supplement their existing media to drive costs down and improve cell viability.

AIM: Supplement UPSIDE Foods existing cell media with algae hydrolysates.²

Objectives:

• Decrease the cost of cultivating high-quality meat in alaboratory setting
• Produce a cell media that is:
  • Scalable
  • High-quality
  • Consistent

Methods

Amino Acid Analysis

• Microalgae Enzymatic Hydrolysis
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Figure 1. The microalgae hydrolysis procedure

Terminal Growth Study

• Suspension Cell Culture
• Serial Cell Counts
• Cell Harvest and Assessment

Results

Figure 2. Amino acid profiles of algae 1 and algae 2 after a 90 minute enzymatic hydrolysis treatment.

Figure 3. Terminal growth curve of UPSIDE standard media and media supplemented with algae 1 and algae 2.

Table 1. Packed Cell Weight, Population doubling time, and Growth Rate for cells grown in each sample of media (Control, Algae 1, Algae 2).

Conclusions

Enzymatic hydrolysates of GRAS microalgae show promise as an additional nutrient source

• Eighteen amino acids needed for protein formation present were found in all treatment group
• Presence of all amino acids in testing indicates a potential to lessen production cost

Algae supplemented media displayed similar production to UPSIDE standard

• Shared terminal growth curves between algae supplemented media and UPSIDE control indicates equal cell production
• Similar Packed Cell Weight, Population Doubling Time, and Growth Rate supports equal cell production
• Cell production is maintainable at lower cost with algae supplementation

Impact

• Reduce cost of meat culture to allow for industrial scalability
• Produce consumer quality meat to provide additional protein sources and reduce global food insecurity

References

(1)Human Food Made with Cultured Animal Cells | Food Safety and Inspection Service. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/complianceguidance/ labeling/labeling-policies/human-food-made-cultured-animalcells (accessed 2024-04-23).

(2)Pena-Farfal, C. Speeding up enzymatic hydrolysis procedures for the multi-element determination in edible seaweed - ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003267005009803?vi a%3Dihub (accessed 2024-04-24).