Speaker
Description
The development of cell-based foods, including cultivated meat, poultry, and fish, represents a promising solution to address the growing demand for sustainable protein sources. However, scaling up production while maintaining desirable texture and sensory attributes remains a key challenge. Biofabrication techniques offer innovative approaches to automate the processing of large cell masses in a controlled and reproducible manner, making them highly relevant for the industrialization of cultivated meat. Research in this field has gained momentum in recent years, with various bioprinting and assembly-based strategies being explored.
In our work, we focus on primary bovine cells, particularly adipose derived stem cells, while also investigating muscle cell differentiation. Furthermore, we are extending our research to primary chicken and fish cells. A major focus lies in adapting serum-free media for scalable suspension cultures, typically using spheroid-based systems. In parallel, we are developing edible bioinks, predominantly based on food-grade gellan, enriched with essential nutrients such as plant-derived proteins. Using extrusion-based bioprinting, we design structures that enhance the texture and mouthfeel of cultivated meat products. Depending on the approach, cells or cell aggregates can either be pre-differentiated before printing or undergo simultaneous differentiation into muscle and fat within printed constructs. The quality of differentiated fat cells can be assessed through shifts in their fatty acid composition. Another important aspect of our research is the "preparation" of printed samples using conventional cooking methods, followed by analytical characterization to assess their final properties.
Beyond its biomedical applications, biofabrication presents exciting opportunities in the food industry, paving the way for the scalable production of structured, cell-based foods with optimized sensory and nutritional propertie
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