Unicorn Bio makes higher bioreactors for cultivated meat – TechCrunch

Cultivated meat, grown in a bioreactor fairly than out on the vary, may be one of many large meals developments of the last decade. But it’s counting on tech constructed round multiplying yeast and micro organism cells, not animal tissue — and Unicorn Biotechnologies desires to vary that with new gear created with mass meals manufacturing in thoughts. It’s simply raised $3.2M to show its prototype bioreactor right into a industrial product.

Though we hear about new cultivated meat firms and funding rounds with frankly superb frequency (this one occurred whereas I used to be scripting this!), there are elementary questions on whether or not this technique of rising meat can scale. The easy reality is that animals like cows are grown in big environments which might be principally empty or full of hay; each gram of cultivated meat comes by way of an costly, complicated machine that in all probability wasn’t designed to do that stuff within the first place.

“Most biomanufacturing systems were designed and optimized for making bacteria (making enzymes) or yeast (brewing beer), or are focused on making the byproducts of animal cells (vaccines), not the animal cells themselves,” stated co-founder and CEO of Unicorn Bio, Jack Reid. “Using this legacy hardware to cultivated meat requires one to re-engineer the cells. Our approach and core conviction is that it is actually easier, and ultimately better, to design new hardware systems aimed to foster the growth around the cells, rather than trying to fit these cells to existing engineering systems.”

Of course it’s not like these firms with large cash are simply shopping for stuff off the shelf. But the trade is transferring quick and critics have identified that even essentially the most wildly optimistic figures are paltry in comparison with the standard meat trade. If they wish to change the world, they’ll want to exchange greater than 1% of beef.

Unicorn goals to vary that with automation and modularity constructed with scaling in thoughts from the beginning.

“Today, one of the biggest challenges for biomanufacturing is bioprocess optimization. It can take years – or even decades – to scale a bioprocess to large-scale bioreactors (imagine steel tanks the size of a small house),” Reid stated. Unicorn’s modular strategy makes use of many smaller methods working in parallel; smaller volumes are simpler to regulate, and in addition simpler so as to add or subtract to fulfill demand or substitute others.

Reid additionally claims the next degree of automation for its machines — which, to be clear, are nonetheless at prototype stage. But bioreactors had been solely very lately solely present in biotech and pharmaceutical laboratories, and aren’t precisely designed for straightforward operation and customization.

“We’re creating a system that is automated end-to-end. To operate it, you don’t need a PhD, you simply need to ‘plug in’ your starting ingredients, select the product you’re growing and let the system take care of the rest,” he stated. While there’s virtually actually a little bit extra to it than that, the system will use built-in sensing, machine studying, and industrial automation tech to this finish. Some of those can already be discovered within the improvements of different cultivated meat startups, however it’s a fast-moving sector.

Ultimately Unicorn doesn’t wish to make meat itself however act as an enabler for others within the trade.

While the potential for cultivated meat is huge (to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions, animal struggling and to extend meals safety in our quickly altering local weather), this can solely be realized if breakthrough applied sciences are made obtainable to all the gamers establishing this discipline,” stated Reid.

If an organization has found an ideal cell line or progress technique however isn’t an skilled in engineering bioreactors or nutrient circulate, they might be capable of arrange Unicorn {hardware} as they scale up fairly than repurposing tech from a special period.

Reid disagreed with a number of the extra outspoken critics of the potential of cultivated meat, however stated it’s true that with right this moment’s know-how (which is to say, yesterday’s) we are able to’t probably hit the volumes essential to make a dent within the moral and environmental points elementary to elevating animals for slaughter. Innovation is important to make even the smallest affect.

The $3.2M seed spherical ought to assist transfer Unicorn ahead; it was led by Acequia Capital, with participation from SOSV, Marinya Capital, Alumni Ventures, C3, CULT Food Science and others. They’ve already spent a few of it to rent up a bit, and need to present a proof of idea scale machine able to producing kilograms of cells by the top of the yr. Pilot tasks with companions may start round that point, or in early 2023.

“Although much work remains ahead,” stated Reid, “We retain the conviction that sustained innovation at the intersection of biology, engineering and bioprocess automation will continue to unlock tangible technologies to help the cultivated meat ecosystem achieve its full potential.”