NEW TECH FOODS

The Good Food Institute (GFI), a non-profit focused on advancing alternative proteins, has acquired several bovine cell lines and serum-free media from the former cultivated meat company SCiFi Foods.

The materials will be made openly available to researchers through a partnership with Tufts University’s Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA).

The move marks the first time suspension-adapted bovine cell lines will be accessible to cultivated meat researchers globally. GFI and Tufts plan to distribute the materials first to academic institutions before expanding access to industry partners.

The acquisition follows SCiFi Foods’ closure in mid-2024 and the subsequent auction of its assets. GFI successfully bid on the cell lines and associated media, transferring them to Tufts in September for storage and distribution.

The initiative is expected to save the field millions of dollars and years of research. Developing new cell lines can cost start-ups between $2 million and $10 million, posing a significant barrier to entry.

By making established, scalable cell lines and media formulations openly available, GFI and Tufts aim to reduce duplication of effort, spur innovation and make cultivated meat research more accessible.

Researchers can now join a waitlist to request access to the first three candidate cell lines banked at Tufts. The serum-free media formulations have also been made open-source.

Amanda Hildebrand, GFI’S VP of science and technology, said: “By making these cell lines and media broadly accessible to the cultivated meat ecosystem, researchers and companies have a new starting line – one that’s now closer to the finish line of bringing new products to market".

"SCiFi’s pioneering work is like a baton in a relay. Given our role in the field, GFI was able to ensure that baton didn’t drop, and through our partnership with Tufts, copies of that same baton will be handed off to scientists and start-ups around the world, enabling more people to join the race... This type of open-access jump-start invites more people to the field, gives everyone a better starting position and ultimately can produce more winners – companies that get more products to consumer plates and consumers who have more choices for foods they love.”

Andrew Stout, assistant professor, biomedical engineering at Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture, added: “The most exciting thing to me about making these cells and media formulations accessible to researchers around the world is that it will immediately elevate the relevance and impact of R&D throughout the field".

"So many experiments currently take place in small-scale systems, and at the end of the day those experiments can only go so far in informing large-scale, bioreactor-based processes. When labs across the field have access to shared, scalable and serum-free systems, I think it will cause a real leap in the value and applicability of their research. At the same time, I’m hopeful that these cells will also help to catalyse a broadening pattern of resource sharing and cell line optimisation across the field.”