Researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Aleph Farms published research findings in Nature Food, regarding the use of textured soy protein as cell based meat scaffolding. https://cellbased.link/cm9

What They Found: Textured soy protein, a common and inexpensive byproduct of soybean oil, was proven to successfully support the growth of bovine stem cells.

Great Potential: the porous/sponge like structure of textured soy protein enables cell adhesion, growth, spread, and maturation because the pores facilitate nutritional and oxygen flow

Taste: three volunteers tasted the cell based meat and noted the products had a meaty flavor and texture

Next Steps: Textured soy protein still needs to be optimized to improve upon the structural and mechanical properties to more closely mimic connective tissues.

Bottom Line: Plant based scaffolds like textured soy protein could provide an inexpensive and nutritionally sound structural component for cell based meat.

Advancements

🧪 Swiss microbial engineering company, Evolva has entered into a strategic partnership with flavor and fragrance nutrition company International Flavors and Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) to commercialize vanillin synthesized through precision fermentation. https://cellbased.link/25o

According to the IFF company press release, “Evolva will receive payments for the product manufactured and sold, contributing to reach cash break-even by 2023.”



Why We Care: Because of the cost and supply chain variability of natural vanilla, most products that want to use vanilla extract use synthetic vanillin made primarily from petrochemicals or chemically derived from lignin (wood pulp). Evolva’s vanillin product is fermentation-derived; a natural product and does not contain any petrochemicals.

More Flavor + Fragrance 👅👃

Microbial fermentation company Conagen received a $30 million strategic investment from Japan based chemical company Sumitomo Chemical to accelerate Conangen’s research and development in products derived from its synthetic biology platforms. https://cellbased.link/ku9