April 20, 2024

A Better Way To Grow Meat in the Lab: Zapping Cells With a Magnet

The brand-new method simplifies the production process of cell-based meat.
The new process is a more ecologically friendly, cleaner, safer, and cost-effective way to make cell-based meat.
By zapping animal cells with a magnet, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found a revolutionary technique of producing cell-based meat. By utilizing fewer animal items, this ingenious technique enhances the production of cell-based meat and makes it more secure, cleaner, and more affordable.
The advantages of cultured meat over conventional animal farming consist of a reduced carbon footprint and a lower opportunity of animal disease transmission. The existing technique of producing cultured meat requires the usage of other animal products, which mainly defeats the purpose, or drugs to promote the meats development.
Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón (left) and Dr. Alex Tai (right) from the National University of Singapore have actually established an unique way of growing cell-based meat in the lab by exposing animal cells to magnetic pulses. Credit: NUS Institute for Health Innovation & & Technology
Animal cells are given animal serum– normally fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is a combination acquired from the blood of fetuses excised from pregnant cows eliminated in the dairy or meat industries– to help them proliferate and develop in order to cultivate cell-based meat. This is an important, though terrible and expensive, stage in the current cell-based meat production process.

The complex manufacturing approach for cell-based meat raises costs, limits making scale, and threatens industrial practicality.
To assist address this challenge, a multidisciplinary research study group led by Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón, who is from the NUS Institute for Health Innovation & & Technology and the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, developed a non-traditional approach of utilizing magnetic pulses to promote the growth of cell-based meat.
Scientists from the National University of Singapore have actually developed an unique way of growing cell-based meat in the laboratory by exposing animal cells to magnetic pulses. This new strategy is a greener, cleaner, much safer, and more economical method to produce cell-based meat. Credit: NUS Institute for Health Innovation & & Technology
Growing cell-based meat with the aid of a magnet The NUS technique uses a delicately tuned pulsed electromagnetic field established by the group to culture myogenic stem cells, which are discovered in skeletal muscle and bone marrow tissue.
Assoc Prof Franco-Obregón described, “In reaction to a short 10-minute direct exposure to the magnetic fields, the cells release a myriad of molecules that have regenerative, metabolic, anti-inflammatory, and immunity-boosting properties. These compounds are part of what is understood as the muscle “secretome” (for produced aspects) and are needed for the development, survival, and advancement of cells into tissues.
This method, the myogenic stem cells will act as a sustainable and green bioreactor to produce the nutrient-rich secretomes for growing cell-based meat at scale for usage. The NUS team utilized the produced proteins to treat unhealthy cells and found that they assist to accelerate the recovery and growth of unhealthy cells. This approach can potentially help to treat injured cells and speed up a patients healing.
Recommendation: “Brief direct exposure to directionally-specific pulsed electro-magnetic fields stimulates extracellular vesicle release and is annoyed by streptomycin: A potential regenerative medication and food industry paradigm” by Craig Jun Kit Wong, Yee Kit Tai, Jasmine Lye Yee Yap, Charlene Hui Hua Fong, Larry Sai Weng Loo, Marek Kukumberg, Jürg Fröhlich, Sitong Zhang, Jing Ze Li, Jiong-Wei Wang, Abdul Jalil Rufaihah and Alfredo Franco-Obregón, 13 July 2022, Biomaterials.DOI: 10.1016/ j.biomaterials.2022.121658.
A patent has likewise been applied for this novel innovation and the NUS group is currently in active conversations with prospective market partners to commercialize the technology.

Animal cells are offered animal serum– normally fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is a mix obtained from the blood of fetuses excised from pregnant cows eliminated in the dairy or meat markets– to help them proliferate and establish in order to cultivate cell-based meat. This is an essential, though terrible and expensive, stage in the present cell-based meat production procedure. Scientists from the National University of Singapore have actually established a novel way of growing cell-based meat in the lab by exposing animal cells to magnetic pulses. This new method is a greener, cleaner, more secure, and more cost-effective method to produce cell-based meat. This method, the myogenic stem cells will act as a green and sustainable bioreactor to produce the nutrient-rich secretomes for growing cell-based meat at scale for consumption.