About This Project

The biggest barrier to making cultivated meat affordable is the absence of a cheap and ethical myogenic factors. In this experiment, we want to verify the possibility of producing growth factors in microalgae into a chemically defined medium to culture chicken cells. We hypothesize that growth factors secreted by C. Reinhardtii can replace fetal bovine serum in a chemically defined medium while supporting the growth of chicken cells for lab grown meat.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

There is a large gap in literature when it comes to growth factors expressed in microalgae. For context, when cultivating cells for lab grown meat, an additive called fetal bovine serum (FBS) is used to maintain cell growth. However, the use of FBS raises regulatory concerns due to contamination and ethical worries, as it comes from fetal cows. Our experiment hopes to validate and prove the possibility of using recombinant algae produced growth factors in culture medium. Growth factors made from microalgae show potential as they are cheap to grow and do not contain contaminating organisms. Epidermal Growth Factor which is a growth factor we plan to express in our vector has been successfully demonstrated in the algae C. Reinhardtii. Using the algae derived growth factors, we can create a chemically defined media without unknown proteins that is significantly cheaper, ethical, and safe than FBS.

What is the significance of this project?

Using algal-expressed growth factors, the costs of media can be drastically reduced, as algae grow quickly and are extremely safe compared to other protein expression systems. Our project is significant because it provides a proof of concept that growth factors can be expressed in microalgae, as well as a new media formulation. Basically, we will discover whether it is feasible to express growth factors in microalgae for lab grown meat, while also finding out how our chemically defined media formulation compares to commercial FBS media. Once our results of our protein assays and cell culture tests come in, the media should be scalable and meet regulatory requirements, serving as a promising avenue for future innovation. Imagine authentic, safe meat without slaughtering animals; 329 tons of C02 are generated every year from the meat industry. We want this experiment to be a pilot study observing the effects of this algal derived FBS replacement for lab grown meat and myotube formation.

What are the goals of the project?

We will use a plasmid encoding for FGF-2 or EGF and insert it into a cell wall deficient stain of C. Reinhardtii algae in the chloroplasts. This will be done with acid washed glass beads using a vortex mixer with polyethylene glycol. In order to fabricate my novel culture media, I plan to use DTIBF media as a starting point but then remove FGF-2 and EGF to induce myotube formation. In this study scientists discovered that DTIBF media can act as both a differentiation and proliferation medium. To summarize our goals, we want to express bioactive GFs and see if it supplements our CMDs. To collect data, we will run Western Blot and other assays to determine whether chicken FGF-2 and EGF were expressed. To measure our media formulation's success, we will culture chicken satellite cells and stain to determine viability. Then we will observe morphological characteristics. We will test four media compositions and do 2 protein assays to further measure success.