Artificial Intelligence in Cellular Agriculture Initiative (AICAI)
Applying AI in the public domain to advance breakthroughs in cellular agriculture
2022 - Ongoing
Cost and scale are major blockers to cellular agriculture's success, and they are complex technical and economic challenges.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques could help to accelerate much of this work, but there is very little public literature on the various applications and benefits.
Given the potential exponential impact of AI/ML, New Harvest and Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) launched the AI in Cell Ag Initiative.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CELLULAR AGRICULTURE INITIATIVE (AICAI)
Overview
AI in Cell Ag Initiative is an ongoing effort to apply AI in the public domain to advance breakthroughs in cellular agriculture.
The initiative was kicked off by a review of opportunities for AI/ML in cultured meat, followed by a one-year dedicated research position to tackling one such opportunity.
Underway are several additional efforts to apply AI/ML to our purpose of Cellular Agriculture for the Public Good, through additional grant opportunities and spin-out collaborative AI research projects.
AICAI Phase I - Review of AI/ML Applications for Cultured Meat
A publicly available, peer-reviewed survey of the many applications of AI/ML in cultured meat research and development.
2022 - 2024
AICAI Phase II - Machine Learning in Cellular Agriculture Residency
Developing a machine learning model to help optimize cell culture media for cultured meat applications.
2025 - Ongoing
AI IN CELL AG INITIATIVE (AICAI)
Outcomes
The peer-reviewed article, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications for cultured meat” is published in the AI in Food, Agriculture and Water section of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.
Ali Parsaee, a Machine Learning in Cellular Agriculture Resident has been selected, and research is underway to develop a machine learning model to help optimize cell culture media for cultured meat applications.
Building on the momentum of AICAI, collaborative AI research projects are being launched to advance the use of AI/ML in cellular agriculture for the public good.
We are currently in Phase II of AICAI, and are pursuing further opportunities to advance AI in Cell Ag.
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
Collaborative AI Research Projects
The following research projects were launched as part of the AI in Cell Ag Initiative.
Creating a Protein Thermostability Dataset to Accelerate Cultured Meat and Seafood Development
Jan 2025 - Ongoing
New Harvest, Vireo Advisors, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, and Defined Bioscience are collaborating to create an open-source, curated dataset that incorporates direct measurements of growth factor thermostability. We are aggregating protein thermostability data from the public domain and generating in vitro and in silico data on growth factor thermostability. Data will be processed for compatibility with AI/ML workflows and released in an open-source format, facilitating field-wide data-sharing and providing a foundation for developing AI/ML models for growth factor thermostability to understand the safety of their use in the production of cultured meat. Funding for this work is provided by Food Systems Innovation.
This project is also part of New Harvest’s Cultured Meat Safety Initiative.
AI IN CELL AG INITIATIVE (AICAI)
Progress Timeline
AICAI Phase I - Review of AI/ML Applications for Cultured Meat
Dec 2022 - New Harvest and Amii announce the AI in Cell Ag Initiative after receiving funding from Schmidt Futures.
Jan 2023 – Apr 2024 - A team of cellular agriculture, biology, and machine learning scientists complete a review article surveying the opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to address technical and economic challenges in cultured meat.
May 2024 - The article is shared as a preprint while in the peer-review process. Call for applications for Phase II - Machine Learning in Cellular Agriculture Residency opens.
Sept 2024 - The peer-reviewed article, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications for cultured meat” is published in the AI in Food, Agriculture and Water section of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.
AICAI Phase II - Machine Learning in Cellular Agriculture Residency
Jan 2025 - Ali Parsaee announced as recipient of the Machine Learning in Cellular Agriculture Residency.
AI IN CELL AG INITIATIVE (AICAI)
Collaborators
This initiative was conceived of and carried out in partnership with Cam Linke of Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii).
The publication is authored by Breanna Duffy, Michael Todhunter, Jubair Sheikh, Ruchika Verma, Rikard Saqe, Kevin Shen.
The publication benefited from the expert reviews of Zachary Consenza from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Sofia Giampaoli, Animesh Acharjee, Ana Velez Rueda, Jessica Carballido, and Leandro Sommese from Alt Atlas; Roy Nadler from Google Research; and Amin Nikkhah from Tufts University.
The publication built upon the initial work of New Harvest Research Fellow (and first publicly-funded AI in cell ag researcher!) Zachary Cosenza and Dr. Michael Todhunter. You can check out their work here.
A special thank you to Evan Rapoport for his facilitative leadership on this project.
AI IN CELL AG INITIATIVE (AICAI)
Funders
Phase I and Phase II of the AICAI are supported by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
Contact
If you have questions or would like to get in touch regarding AICAI, please contact Bre Duffy at breanna@new-harvest.org