Munich-based cultivated meat startup MyriaMeat has established a pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line from roe deer and successfully produced functional roe deer muscle cells using its patented differentiation protocol, the company announced this week.
Expanding the species range
The result is the first time MyriaMeat has applied its iPSC platform to a wild game species. The company, founded in 2022 as a University of Göttingen spin-off, had previously focused its work on pork, producing what it claimed was the first cultivated pork fillet grown from iPSCs without scaffolding or plant protein blends, and last year demonstrated spontaneous muscle contractions in cultivated pig tissue.
“This milestone shows that our platform technology can be transferred to additional animal species”
The roe deer work follows the same technical approach: a single biopsy from the animal, no further animal contact, and differentiation of iPSCs into genuine muscle cells via a proprietary protocol. MyriaMeat says the resulting cells are both functional and characteristic of roe deer muscle tissue.
Florian Hüttner, CEO of MyriaMeat, stated, “This milestone shows that our platform technology can be transferred to additional animal species.”
Why roe deer?
Roe deer is a popular game meat in Germany and across Central Europe, with a consumer profile that skews toward premium positioning. By targeting a wild species with established culinary demand, MyriaMeat positions its platform as capable of producing not just commodity cuts but also specialty and high-value products.
The company has also been working on a hybrid sausage project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the state of Lower Saxony, combining cultivated and conventional pork.
The more significant technical claim here is not the roe deer itself, but what producing it demonstrates about the underlying platform. If the same iPSC differentiation protocol works across multiple species with distinct cell biology, it potentially reduces the development cost and timeline for each new species the company wants to target.
Hüttner continued, “Roe deer meat from cell culture is no longer just a vision, it is our next goal.”
