Maria Gomes Fernandes, PhD

Maria is a biologist at heart, with a background in developmental biology and specialized in stem cell biology. She first heard of the idea of using stem cells for food production during a class for her Masters degree in 2010 and thought “that’s really cool, but sounds like we are decades far from it being a reality”. It was in 2019, years later after she finished her PhD in developmental and stem cell biology that she heard that the concept was being put into practice and she remembers thinking “Wow, the future is really closer than what you would think”.

She joined Meatable, one of the first cultivated meat startups, right at it’s infancy, for 6 years, and led the Cell Line Development team and later on headed the Cell and Tissue Sciences department, working closely with QA, Regulatory and Production teams.

During this time, Maria had the chance to connect with a lot of players in the field and realized that she would like to help the field grow and mature into it’s full potential as a whole and that’s what brought her to New Harvest. In her free time Maria enjoys travelling, cooking (and eating!), music and festivals, art and culture, and you can regularly find her in a boulder hall.

maria@new-harvest.org
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