Research Projects

Nutritionally Enhanced Meat

Tailoring the nutritional profile of cultured meat

Andrew Stout
Tufts University, United States

cell

Overview

Who: Andrew Stout, Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering

When: 2017 – Present

Institutes: Tufts University, NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center, United States

Supervisors: David Kaplan, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Tufts University

Summary

Andrew’s research focuses on customizing the nutritional profile of cultured meat by introducing nutrients and bioactive compounds not typically found in meat, like beta carotene. He is using bioprocess design and genetic engineering to nutritionally engineer cultured meat. The ultimate goal? To understand the nutritional benefits and disadvantages of cell-cultured versus conventionally-farmed meat products.

: Andrew presenting his research at the 5th International Conference on Cultured Meat in Maastricht, Netherlands.

: Andrew and Natalie, another fellow at Tufts, at the 2019 Reciprocal Meat Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. They presented a joint talk to the meat industry’s leading meat scientists about how cultured meat technology can be used to create novel food products.

: Carotenoid production in cells, visualized 👀 Five cell-pellets of bovine skeletal muscle cells that have been genetically modified to produce different compounds.

Why This Matters

Andrew’s research shows us the limitless possibilities of cellular agriculture, beyond simply mimicking existing meat products. Customizing the nutritional profile of cultured meat could pave the way for creating novel foods with added health benefits. Imagine beef infused with plant vitamins or nutritionally engineered to be less carcinogenic!

To find out more about this project, listen to our podcast where we talk to Andrew about his experience in Dr. Mark Post's lab and engineering cultivated meat to reduce carcinogenicity.

Listen Now