Rostock University Medical Centre in Germany is involved in research into cultivated meat in order to strengthen sustainable production and reduce agricultural emissions. The research project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture as part of the innovation funding programme until 2025.
The Clinic and Polyclinic for Cardiac Surgery, the Research Laboratory for Biomechanics and Implant Technology and the Orthopaedic Clinic and Polyclinic at Rostock University Medical Centre are researching the production of cell-based meat products that are free from genetically modified tissue together with local cultivated meat company Innocent Meat.
“Rostock University Medical Centre has many years of experience in stem cell research and therefore has extensive scientific expertise, which can now also have important benefits for the food sector,” explains Prof. Dr Emil Reisinger, Dean and Scientific Director.
Stem cells for slaughter-free meat
The research project entitled MOSTIME “Modern stimulation methods for the differentiation of adult stem cells into functional tissue for the production of cell-based meat products for the food sector” specialises in the development of meat products in which stem cells are taken from adult pigs without slaughtering them.
“These cells are cultivated in bioreactors and differentiated into muscle, fat and connective tissue cells,” explains Prof Dr Robert David, head of the cardiac surgery research group. With the help of cost- and resource-reduced methods through reprogramming and electrical stimulation, meat products are to be transferred from laboratory scale to commercial production through propagation.
The three research institutes of Rostock University Medicine are currently developing standardised procedures for reprogramming and electrical stimulation parameters. Initial results with skeletal muscle cells show that the cells proliferate strongly through electrical stimulation. The cardiac surgery working group has now been able to develop three programming procedures. The combination of the two approaches will ultimately be merged into an optimised stimulation procedure in order to optimise the proliferation of animal stem cells into consumer meat.
Further information: med.uni-rostock.de