Project Title: Developing a plant-based serum alternative from canola for use in cellular agriculture

Animal serum is vital for cell culture but is costly and ethically problematic. We propose using Canada's abundant canola meal, a high-protein byproduct, to create a sustainable alternative. Our project will identify growth-promoting peptides from canola protein to develop a plant-based serum replacement.

Project Tittle: Investigate the use of canola and pea sidestreams to produce affordable plant-based alternatives to fetal bovine serum (FBS)

This project aims to develop a sustainable, plant-based alternative to FBS by producing canola hydrolysates directly from canola meal under optimized process conditions. The study evaluates the effects of these hydrolysates on cell growth, morphology, and expression of growth-related markers in myocytes and adipocytes. It further assesses the long-term viability and proliferation of cells cultured in canola-supplemented media compared to conventional media. Additionally, the project identifies bioactive peptides within the canola hydrolysate and investigates their mechanisms in promoting cell growth and differentiation.

Project Title: Scalable Local Cell Line Establishment for Cultivated Beef Production

The limitation of expansion ability and the nature of adherent growth hinge the scaling-up of cultivated beef production. This project will focus on the immortalization and suspension adaptation of bovine satellite cells and fibroblasts isolated from Alberta cattle. The output of this project will not only provide a stable cell line for cultivated beef production, but also standard guidelines for engineering cell lines establishment through gene editing, spontaneous generation, and co-culture techniques.

Project Title: Data-Driven Optimization of Aroma in Cell-Based Fat

Building an ML-guided approach using lipidomics and volatile profiling to identify aroma-driving lipid precursors and optimize culture conditions to enhance beef fat–like aroma in cell-based fat.

Project Title: Analysis of sugar beet mash as a sustainable and cost-effective input for cellular agriculture and biomanufacturing processes.

This project turns sugar beet mash, a co-product from sugar processing, into a low-cost and eco-friendly source of glucose and other nutrients. These molecules will be used to feed microorganisms programmed to make food ingredients, medicines, and more.