Welcome Dr. Ning Xiang of the Institute of Cellular Agriculture

It will be the first institute in Canada, and one of the first few in the world dedicated to growing food from cells.

This is a big deal!!

In November 2023, the U of A began interviewing candidates to be the first Assistant or Associate Professor of Cellular Agriculture at the Institute. We invited the public to join the public seminars and share their thoughts in a first and second round.

We’re now thrilled to introduce you to Dr. Ning Xiang, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Science, in the Department of Ag, Food & Nutrition Science!

Dr. Xiang obtained her Ph.D. in Agriculture and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, and conducted her postdoctoral research at Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture, under the supervision of Professor David Kaplan, alongside several New Harvest Research Fellows.

As a member of the cellular agriculture research group, her primary expertise lies in the development of edible scaffolds and the design of novel bioreactors for cultured meat production. She has extensively investigated the use of non-animal derived edible scaffolds and microcarriers, with a particular focus on optimizing cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation.

Beyond academia, Ning has actively translated research into industrial applications. As a cofounder of CellX, a cultured meat company in China, Ning played a pivotal role in industrializing scalable and sustainable cultured meat production, through CellX’s patented continuous production method for fibrous scaffolds and the development of degradable microcarriers.

Ning’s work has garnered recognition and has been published in reputable journals such as Nature Communications, Biomaterials, Nature Reviews Bioengineering and Trends in Food Science and Technology.

Ning’s work on key factors affecting the scaling-up of cultured meat production, including designing novel bioreactor systems and optimizing mass transfer and cellular metabolite removal, has been published in Nature Reviews Bioengineering and Trends in Food Science and Technology.

Throughout her career, Ning has collaborated with diverse stakeholders, including universities, industry players, and international organizations, to address the challenges associated with development of high-density cell culture systems for cultured meat production. Her work has been recognized in the XPrize competition and was featured in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report “Food Safety Aspects of Cell-Based Food”.

As part of Ning’s plans, she’s looking forward to develop a specialized course on cellular agriculture and collaborate with stakeholders across New Harvest’s broad research network and beyond.

We are thrilled that Ning will be joining the esteemed faculty at the University of Alberta to further advance the field of cellular agriculture and contribute to the university’s vision of cutting-edge research, innovation, and sustainable food systems.

Don’t hesitate to learn more about Ning, add her on LinkedIn, or even drop her a note of congratulations at nxiang@ualberta.ca.

And for more good news, the other last round candidate and former New Harvest Research Fellow, Dr. Cameron Semper, has also become an Assistant Professor, at the nearby University of Calgary!

What a win for our ecosystem and the many collaborations in our future.

Thanks so much for being part of this successful search.

Onward!