The Cellular Agriculture Science Engine
A series of catalytic grant-making efforts to emerging technical leaders to build the academic foundations of cellular agriculture.
2015 - Ongoing
Through our catalytic grant-making programs, New Harvest planted the seeds for cellular agriculture as a field.
Prior to 2015, “cellular agriculture” did not exist as a term, and it fell in a funding gap: it required expertise from medicine for applications within agriculture.
Our thesis was simple: If New Harvest takes the leap and funds cellular agriculture research, then we can have a community of researchers with data and expertise to win big time government grants.
There were dozens of researchers around the world keen to do this work; however they did not have access to
New Harvest alumni have co-founded companies, won government grants, and mentored dozens of students. They comprise the cellular agriculture vanguard.
CELL AG SCIENCE ENGINE
Overview
The Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI) is a joint initiative between New Harvest and Vireo Advisors aiming to address critical technical, methodological, and informational challenges related to evaluating the safety of cultured meat (CM) products.
CMSI involves the convening of diverse stakeholders, including industry, governmental scientists, regulators, academic researchers, and others.
Gaining such varied perspectives advances public knowledge and the practice of food safety for CM products by identifying and addressing data gaps.
Research conducted to develop data and methods build the necessary support elements for the emerging ecosystem, which can raise regulatory and consumer confidence, support industry efforts toward commercialization, and improve the efficacy of evaluation processes of regulatory safety reviews.
We are currently in Phase III of this initiative.
CELL AG SCIENCE ENGINE
Outcomes
A series of working sessions are being held throughout 2024 - 2025 on Developing an Action Plan for Cultured Meat Safety Research.
From these discussions, collaborative safety research projects are being launched to demonstrate the safety of cultured meat and seafood products.
We are currently in Phase III of CMSI.
Methods Development for Measuring Growth Factors
Oct 2023 - Ongoing
Growth factors are a key input in cultured meat production due to their roles in controlling cell proliferation and differentiation. Currently, the lack of standardized methods for measuring growth factors slows safety demonstration and regulatory review. A collaboration between Vireo Advisors, Multus, Aberytswyth University in Wales, Extracellular, and the British Standards Institute, this project aims to develop and validate analytical methods for reliably measuring growth factors that can be used to estimate exposure levels when consumed in cultured meat and seafood products.
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 AI in Cell Ag Initiative.
CELL AG SCIENCE ENGINE
Progress Timeline
an 2025 - New project launches out of CMSI: Creating a Protein Thermostability Dataset to Accelerate Cultured Meat and Seafood Development. 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. Funding for this work is provided by Food Systems Innovation.
Mar 2025 – Third working session in San Francisco, CA, with in-kind support from Wildtype and the University of California Davis Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP).
Jun 2025 – Fourth working session in Chicago, IL: with in-kind support from Perkins Coie
CELL AG SCIENCE ENGINE
Collaborators
The Cellular Agriculture Science Engine is a collaboration between Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, Experiment.com, and New Harvest.
CELL AG SCIENCE ENGINE
Funders
an 2025 - New project launches out of CMSI: Creating a Protein Thermostability Dataset to Accelerate Cultured Meat and Seafood Development. 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. Funding for this work is provided by Food Systems Innovation.
Mar 2025 – Third working session in San Francisco, CA, with in-kind support from Wildtype and the University of California Davis Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP).
Jun 2025 – Fourth working session in Chicago, IL: with in-kind support from Perkins Coie
Contact
If you have questions or would like to get in touch regarding CMSI, please contact Bre Duffy at breanna@new-harvest.org