Kevin Shen and Rikard Saqe, students from the Faculties of Science and Mathematics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, have received over $700,000 in grants from Good Food Institute (GFI), Mitacs, and New Harvest to expand their research in advancing cultivated seafood with AI.
The research goals, formulated within the Waterloo Alt Protein Project design team, a global network of over 60 student-led organizations supported by the GFI, aim to establish the large-scale production of cultivated seafood, specifically fish.
Using AI, the researchers will predict and enhance cell behavior and create detailed genomic and proteomic profiles. Additionally, they will employ multi-omics technologies and use single-cell RNA sequencing to gain insights into the cellular makeup of fish.
The collected data will be used to develop computational models for gene regulation, cell growth, and development. These models will help address various challenges within cultivated seafood production, such as formulating optimized animal-free serum media, reliably inducing cell immortalization, and improving cell proliferation and differentiation on a large scale.
Solving the protein challenge
Shen is a Master of Science (Biology) student with a Computer Science degree, and Saqe is completing his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and aspiring to pursue a Master’s Degree.
Their shared interest in climate change and alternative proteins led them to pursue bioinformatics to tackle ethical and sustainable food production. Cultivated seafood has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of commercial fishing and provide safer food options by eliminating harmful elements like mercury and microplastics, two contaminants frequently found in fish.
“Climate change and food security are two of the biggest challenges we face as a society”
Several professors, including Dr. Brian Dixon from the Department of Biology, Dr. Brian Ingalls from the Department of Applied Mathematics, and Dr. Nguyen Vo from Wilfrid Laurier University, guide their research.
All data and models will be publicly shared on a “cultivated meat atlas” platform to support broader research efforts. Their work so far, a comprehensive review of machine learning in cultivated meat, created in collaboration with New Harvest and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, is now available as a preprint.
“Climate change and food security are two of the biggest challenges we face as a society. Alternative proteins and cellular agriculture use far less land and water, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional meat products,” Shen told the University of Waterloo.
