- Overview
- Background
- Updates
Overview
We are building a low cost, open source modular bioreactor for in vitro tissue culture to increase global access to cellular agriculture research tools. The project is a collaboration between New Harvest, the Institute for Development of Advanced Applied Systems (IRNAS), and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maribor in Slovenia.
01
This initiative builds on a prototype created by seed grantees in the United States and Canada.
02
Now in Slovenia, the bioreactor travels back and forth between IRNAS and the University of Maribor as a tissue engineer tests each step and the hardware team makes changes in response.
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The bioreactor is designed to rapidly adapt to a constant flurry of new research about cultured meat. Technical specifications (specs) are available on GitHub.
Updates
September, 2023 – Documentation for the system (everything you need to manufacture and build) is published openly on Github!
August, 2020 – The project team publishes a peer-reviewed paper in Food Engineering Reviews about the potential of new tools to accelerate cultured meat production.
July, 2020 – IRNAS hosts a webinar about the bioreactor.
June, 2020 – IRNAS publishes a blog post about the bioreactor.
April, 2020 – The bioreactor begins its next phase of testing!
May, 2018 – New Harvest teams up with the Institute for Development of Advanced Applied Systems (IRNAS) to turn the prototype into an operational, open source bioreactor.
January, 2018 – New Harvest’s inaugural seed grantees build the prototype and hand over the project to New Harvest for next steps.
October, 2017 – A team of undergraduate engineers reach out to New Harvest seeking funding to create a bioreactor prototype for a capstone project. Lacking a funding mechanism to support short-term research, New Harvest creates a new kind of grant—the New Harvest Seed Grant—to fund the project.
Collaborators
This initiative is a collaboration between New Harvest, the Institute for Development of Advanced Applied Systems (IRNAS), and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maribor.
The team includes Boštjan Vihar, Luka Banovic, and Jernej Vaja.
It builds on a prototype developed by New Harvest seed grantees Han Zhang, Kyle Manke, and Yi-Fan Chen at the University of British Columbia and New Harvest research fellow Jess Krieger at Kent State University.
The IRNAS team!
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The Foundational Cellular Agriculture Textbook
Cellular Agriculture: Technology, Society, Sustainability and Science was designed to be the go-to reference for everyone in cellular agriculture - the textbook found in every company’s office, in every university lab, and in every aspiring student’s backpack.
The text provides a state-of-the-art review of cellular agriculture technologies, presenting foundational information with practical application insights. There are chapters on regulatory and policy issues, as well as reviews of the sustainability challenges of alternative proteins.
It is the first resource of its kind to take a practical approach to review the design, feasibility, and implementation of cellular agriculture techniques. With additional chapters on life cycle analyses and ideal transition scenarios, this book provides a resource for aspiring technology developers and academics alike seeking evidence-based assessments of the industry and its disruptive potential. The textbook was written by industry and academic experts for a balanced perspective of the field today and to inspire and shed light on a path forward.