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Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#21

Post by partisan »

Thebroser wrote: post #5

Hey! Bioengineering background here, how do you all embed the cells within the scaffold? Is your approach similar to other bioprinting approaches (initial cells seeded via extrusion, inkjet, or laser assisted deposition)? At first I would think this could be done with some sort of printable collagen scaffold but I'm curious for what your approach would be. In addition, as someone that is involved in therapeutics, I'm…

“Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a ubiquitously used essential supplement in cell culture media. However, there are serious scientific and ethical concerns about the use of FBS regarding its harvest and production.”

From an abstract of a research paper regarding FBS-free media.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#22

Post by coldpie »

shafyy wrote: post #20
blondie9x wrote: post #3

@asmertgen thoughts on this research https://thecounter.org/lab-grown-cultivated-meat-cost-at-sca... ?

This is a very good article. I place lab-grown in the same mind bucket as carbon capturing. Both are futuristic technologies that don't exist today (not really) but get a lot of media hype. For both, there's a much easier solution that exists today (e.g, switching to renewable energies, switching to plant-based meats) that are great and are also gaining a lot of traction. With both tech, it's unclear if they will eve…

Asking/forcing people to change their behavior doesn't have a great track record. Given that constraint, putting effort into tech like this makes sense, especially if it's in addition to making behavior changes less difficult, like you propose. It's not an either-or.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#23

Post by vpribble »

thecolorblue wrote: post #9

I have also worked with bioreactors. Sounds like you have made some great progress. Just a couple thoughts: 1) there are plenty of other niches for microbe production that could possibly use the same technology. I am not suggesting you switch now, but something to keep in mind for the future. In my opinion, the current standard processes for working with bioreactors are slow and manual. I think there is a lot of room…

We definitely agree with you that the reactors currently used in biopharma were not really meant for the level of production required to scale cultivated meat. As for the growth, typically you'll find what's called a "seed train" for growing cultivated meat. This is basically a series of reactors starting from a small flask around 10 mL and ending in a reactor greater than 20000L! The train might have reactors along the way, 10mL, 200mL, 4L, 80L, etc. until the final reactor volume is reached. Some of these reactors, especially the larger reactors near the end of the process, are meant to handle the cells at a specific stage in the lifecycle, such as maturing, where the cells grow in volume.

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#24

Post by buzzy_hacker »

Congratulations on the launch, I genuinely think this ranks among the most positive high-impact work one could be doing right now. The scale of animal cruelty is tremendous. Disrupting the meat industry is so important. Do let us know if you need any software engineers!

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#28

Post by [deleted] »

partisan wrote: post #21
Thebroser wrote: post #5

Hey! Bioengineering background here, how do you all embed the cells within the scaffold? Is your approach similar to other bioprinting approaches (initial cells seeded via extrusion, inkjet, or laser assisted deposition)? At first I would think this could be done with some sort of printable collagen scaffold but I'm curious for what your approach would be. In addition, as someone that is involved in therapeutics, I'm…

“Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a ubiquitously used essential supplement in cell culture media. However, there are serious scientific and ethical concerns about the use of FBS regarding its harvest and production.” From an abstract of a research paper regarding FBS-free media.

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Micro Meat (YC S21) – Technology for scaling cultivated meat

#30

Post by vpribble »

tonmoy wrote: post #18

Can you comment on the total carbon emission compared to traditional method of producing beef? Assuming you can use completely renewable sources for all the electricity needs, how much more carbon is emitted per kg meat produced?

Good Food Institute has a great write-up on the reduction of emissions and land use which can be found here (https://gfi.org/blog/cultivated-meat-lca-tea/). To summarize it, with renewables along the production chain, estimates for the reduction of greenhouse emissions/land use for chicken, pork and beef are 17%/63%, 52%/72%, and up to 92%/95% respectively.
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