Meat production accounts for 60% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by global food production, which translates to 17.5B metric tonnes of emissions per year. This is on par with those from transportation. Replacing just 20% of farmed meat translates to removing emissions generated by 760M cars. To feed these animals, land has to be cleared for animal grazing and growing their feed. While more people turn vegetarian or vegan, a large majority still cannot forego meat in their daily diets. In the past decade, the cultivated meat (CM) industry has grown. Its ethos is to develop meat that is indistinguishable from farmed meat and aid us in reaching net-zero emissions through reduced land usage and more sustainable production processes.

However, biomanufacturing capacity cannot keep up. Global bioreactor capacity is only at 15 million litres and by 2030, it is estimated that the demand will be 250 million litres. While most of the CM industry is focusing on bringing down cost through cell feed optimisation, the limitations and inefficiencies of current bioreactors and bioprocessing is often overlooked. Most of these bioreactors are adapted from the cell therapy industry with great losses at every bioprocessing step and fragmented overall process. As a result, price parity is still difficult to achieve due to the high cost of growing CM compared to farmed meat.

We are transforming how we routinely grow mammalian cells in the lab by growing them on the surface of liquid droplets rather than solid substrates such as microcarriers. This project will focus on developing a bioreactor to complement the technology we have developed. This will allow us to showcase the scale up capabilities and streamlined bioprocessing required with our technology.

As a cell manufacturing platform, new types of food can be developed, giving more variety, and allowing the gradual shift from traditional meat consumption. By accelerating product development, Liquibio aids in building a more resilient food system and lowering CO2 emissions.