Talk - A Talk on Genetic Engineering Opportunities For Cultured Meat
Andrew Stout from the Kaplan Lab at Tufts University will be giving this term’s talk.
The cell-level control that is available to a cultured meat production system offers exciting possibilities for generating novel foods. Specifically, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering strategies allow for the synthesis of non-native compounds de novo or the regulation of native metabolism or cell-signaling for bioprocess and compositional control. This tuning can manifest in novel food products with altered nutritional profiles, modified food-functionality, or tailored bioactivity. It can also offer significant effects on bioprocess parameters. We have recently demonstrated this possibility through the production of phytonutrients (carotenoids) in bovine skeletal muscle cells, the antioxidant capacity of which are relevant to nutrition, food-quality, and cellular redox balance. This talk will discuss this work, as well as other targets that could prove valuable in the future.