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

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

#41

Post by thecolorblue »

ada1981 wrote: post #14
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…

Can you share more about your ideas?

Which ideas do you mean? 1 or 2?

I realize now that I probably should have made two comments.

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

#42

Post by thecolorblue »

vpribble wrote: post #23
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…

Ah, got it. It is an interesting detail of the process that I would have never thought of coming into the industry.

Thanks for the explanation.

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

#43

Post by second--shift »

This is very interesting from a society/technology perspective. I support your efforts! I do have one or two fundamental questions about this industry/space, not necessarily related to this company, but this might be a good place to ask.

I am a vegan of about 10 years now, and as (potentially) a constituent of the addressable market, here's why I'm not going to buy lab-grown "meat": my primary motivations for dietary veganism are to do with non-renewable resource consumption: potable water, land use, oil/energy, emissions, etc. Traditional industrial meat consumption uses around 10x land/energy/ghg emissions as plant crops per calorie, and about 100x the water (or more). It's not clear to me how the lab-grown meat addresses these resource consumption considerations.

---

> Cultivating meat is similar to brewing beer

As a dietary vegan I don't know the first thing about meat, but I do know a little about home-brewing. In the case of home-brewing wine or beer, at least for me, it's about ~5x volume in water consumption (~5L of water makes 1L wine), including cleaning, mixing, etc. This is on a tiny scale; I'm sure if water consumption was optimized for you could do even less. Is cultivating lab meat closer in water use to brewing beer, or traditional meat farming? I'm also curious about the energy input; how many calories of energy in -> calories out?

If there are order-of-magnitude gains to be made in non-renewable resource consumption, I can get behind this even if I personally find it a little gross (sorry). At a small scale, I don't doubt the resource consumption is non-optimal, but how much can be gained by scale/optimization?

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

#44

Post by asmertgen »

vpribble wrote: post #40
Nathanael_M wrote: post #31

Wow, I have so many questions. First, I really respect people acting on conviction. Anyway, I have lots of questions (all completely uninformed) so feel free to ignore any of them, haha. 1) Where are you in the development process? Have your scaffolds been used to successfully grow a piece of edible meat? 2) When do you think the value of cultivated meat will grow to a point to make the industry self-sustaining? Or e…

1) We have already created our first piece of edible pork using our method! 2) ATKearney in their article "How will cultured meat and meat alternatives disrupt the agricultural and food industry?" estimates that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low, I think you'll start seeing restaurant experiences start cropping up more and more over the next 3…

I haven't had the chance to taste the meat of other companies sadly, but we plan on be ready for tasting of our product in the next months!

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

#45

Post by asmertgen »

rolleiflex wrote: post #32

Just wanted to say this is probably the best launch HN description I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for the better part of the decade. Thank you for going into the real meat (ahem) of it and not being scared of writing at length. Your cause, if successful, will hopefully indirectly result in orders of magnitude reduction in total animal suffering, so best of luck and godspeed.

Thank you so much! Highly appreciated!

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

#46

Post by asmertgen »

Thebroser wrote: post #16
asmertgen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very good questions there! 1) Yes, our process is similar to bioprinting but it is much more scalable than typical bioprinting. Because this is our proprietary tech I can't say much more than that at this point:) 2) We are currently still using some gelatin in our scaffold which is animal derived but of course we are putting a lot of effort into making it completely animal free asap. 3) There are companies who are fo…

Thanks a ton for your reply! I wish you all the best, tons of cool innovation to be done here.

Thank you!

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

#47

Post by Nathanael_M »

vpribble wrote: post #40
Nathanael_M wrote: post #31

Wow, I have so many questions. First, I really respect people acting on conviction. Anyway, I have lots of questions (all completely uninformed) so feel free to ignore any of them, haha. 1) Where are you in the development process? Have your scaffolds been used to successfully grow a piece of edible meat? 2) When do you think the value of cultivated meat will grow to a point to make the industry self-sustaining? Or e…

1) We have already created our first piece of edible pork using our method! 2) ATKearney in their article "How will cultured meat and meat alternatives disrupt the agricultural and food industry?" estimates that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low, I think you'll start seeing restaurant experiences start cropping up more and more over the next 3…

This is all very exciting. I am looking forward to a well marbled chicken steak in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

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

#48

Post by Nathanael_M »

asmertgen wrote: post #44
vpribble wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) We have already created our first piece of edible pork using our method! 2) ATKearney in their article "How will cultured meat and meat alternatives disrupt the agricultural and food industry?" estimates that about 10% of global meat consumption could be switched over to cultivated meat around 2030. While 10% is low, I think you'll start seeing restaurant experiences start cropping up more and more over the next 3…

I haven't had the chance to taste the meat of other companies sadly, but we plan on be ready for tasting of our product in the next months!

Let me know if you need any beta testers ;)

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

#49

Post by asmertgen »

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.

Yes, exactly, getting rid of FBS is crucial for making cultivated meat more ethical and sustainable than traditional meat!

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

#50

Post by asmertgen »

kieckerjan wrote: post #13

Impressive initiative. I understand too little of this matter to judge the merits of your approach. However, it is clear to me that if cultivated meat achieves feature parity with "regular" meat and becomes cheaper to produce, it will be the biggest revolution in food since the invention of agriculture, and a possible world saver. Thank you for trying! :-)

Exactly that's what is driving us! Thank you for your comment!
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