Recombinant Production of Growth Factors for Application in Cell Culture

Overview

Who: Meenakshi Venkatesan, Cameron Semper, Stig Skrivergaard, Rosa Di Leo, Nathalie Mesa, Martin Krøyer Rasmussen, Jette Feveile Young, Margrethe Therkildsen, Peter J. Stogios, Alexei Savchenko

Published: October 21, 2022

Where: iScience

Key Takeaway: Using E. coli to make growth factors for cell-cultured meat reduces cost and improves production efficiency.

Research Topics: media

Summary

Meenakshi Venkatesan et al. attempt an alternate synthesis method of growth factors required for cell-cultured meat production to circumvent the economic and environmental burden of growth factor synthesis. They attempt to develop a recombinant synthesis system using Escherichia coli (E. coli) as the bacterial host that does not require additional synthesis steps after recovery and purification of the growth factors. The first step of this study explores properties of growth factor genes to determine how they can be made suitable to be expressed by E. coli. After determining optimal genes to produce FGF1, FGF2, IGF1, IGF2, PDGF-BB, and TGF-β1 in E. coli, they test synthesis and use of the growth factors. Venkatesan et al. conclude their production system significantly decreases the unit cost of all growth factors tested. They argue cost is reduced further when considering that the recombinantly synthesized growth factors show better cell proliferation than their commercial counterparts. Overall, Venkatesan et al. suggest recombinant growth factor synthesis has great potential in cell-cultured meat.

Written by Morgan Ziegelski

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Venkatesan, M., Semper, C., Skrivergaard, S., Di Leo, R., Mesa, N., Rasmussen, M. K., Young, J. F., Therkildsen, M., Stogios, P. J., & Savchenko, A. (2022). Recombinant production of growth factors for application in cell culture. iScience, 25(10), 105054. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105054

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