Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CCMeat (Barley Biofarmed Growth Factors to Make Cell Cultured Meat an Affordable Reality)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-10-01 bis 2022-09-30
Production of meat through animal cultivation is already harming the world in various ways including extensive release of greenhouse gas emission, aggressive land and water use and consequent danger to thousands of species, animal welfare issues and harmful use of antibiotics. As a reaction to these investors across the board and the food industry are looking at Cell Cultured Meat (CCM) as the next big FoodTech trend; however, producing cell-based food faces huge cost and scalability issues. This project, CCMeat, will remove the biggest hurdle CCM producers are facing to bring their alternative meat products to market. To create meat from animal stem cells, Growth Factors (GFs) are needed to signal cells to grow and develop. These essential proteins are currently the most expensive ingredients coming in at approximately 3000€/kg of CCM produced (2018). Our solution brings together our 19 years of experience using barley technology to produce affordable, endotoxin-free GFs designed specifically for CCM: MESOkine™. Over the next 10 years, we will significantly reduce production costs of GFs by further optimizing our barley production platform, implement low-cost in-field cultivation and develop new processing technology for purifying the proteins from barley grains.
Work on all Work Packages has, in general, proceeded as planned.
WP1, New cultivars, bioactivity, and cultivation scale-up: In-field cultivation of barley cultivars producing human GFs proceeded as planned, bridging the gap until the animal GFs became available in the second half of the project, phasing out ORFs current human GFs. Development of new barley cultivars producing animal GFs proceeded as planned, except that ORF added several new cultivars, with new animal GFs, in addition to those planned in the Grant Agreement. This was done in accordance with expressed interest by CCM companies. Bioactivity of all new GFs was tested by outside lab (SBH Sciences, USA) and cooperating partners among CCM companies. In all cases the bioactivity of the purified growth factors was equivalent or better than industry standard. In-field cultivation trials in Iceland and Canada were successful for both years, resulting in expected amount of high-quality barley grains.
WP2, Optimization of processing: Optimization of seed processing was completed, resulting in a new high-throughput setup of equipment-line for seed cleaning, de-hulling and milling, already tested and in use. Larger extraction vessels were bought and tested; the equipment-line can now easily work with more than 100kg of barley grain in a short timeframe as was the goal. Optimization in extraction and subsequent purification steps for each GF resulted in several fold increases in yield, thereby significantly reducing the cost. A new affinity technology for purification of target proteins was implemented and demonstrated to work efficiently, however, this process took more time and effort than projected to optimize and demonstrated some limitations in economical scale-up due to scale-up problems from supplier of critical component. Therefore, a modified version of the technology was optimized and replaced by a continuous clarification step and high-capacity sieves. This setup has also facilitated the optimization of buffer exchange in the last steps of the purification procedure.
WP3, Industrial product design and optimization: Optimization of the processing reduced the need for raw materials quite significantly and made it possible to switch from pharma grade to food grade for some key ingredients lowered the cost further. The high-capacity sieves are connected to a highly automated feed system, which makes the run semi-automated. At present all customers are receiving the final GF product in a freeze-dried format but a lot of testing has been done indicating that other, simpler, low-cost and more user-friendly formats are just as bioactive. Some customers have received those formats and evaluated the activity. Design and production of packaging for freeze-dried MESOkine GFs portfolio was finalized and is being used for all MESOkine products sold to several CCM companies. All feedback from the customers is positive, the GFs perform as well or better than industry standard.
WP4, Preparation for commercial rollout: ORF has attended a substantial number of conferences and seminars and presented the CCMeat project and the resulting MESOkine products. Most of these events were attended on-line due to covid19 pandemic. The company is in direct contact with the majority of CCM companies in the world, has delivered samples of MESOkine GFs to most of them and initiated sales to many of them, including the leading ones. ORF is now in discussion with several companies and exploring partnership agreements. A website for MESOkine was designed and launched. The company is building up a customer base which is being managed by customer relationship management software linked to the MESOkine website. The business is being continuously monitored through direct contact with CCM companies, key organizations and opinion leaders within the CCM sector as well as through market reports, internet and social media. The business case is continuously re-analyzed in accordance with relevant new information.
WP5, IP, Risk and Project Management: One international (PCT) patent application on the composition of the MESOkine products has been filed and another patent application on the production procedure was planned at the end of the project. However, due to delays in delivery of equipment, resulting in necessary modification of processing and final optimization of the production, the filing will be done in Q1 2023. The brand MESOkine was registered and an application for further worldwide registrations sent to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). None of the projected potential risks have materialized. One unexpected new risk appeared; earthquakes and subsequent volcanic eruption in vicinity of ORFs greenhouse in Southwest Iceland. No damage has occurred nor imminent.
WP1, New cultivars, bioactivity, and cultivation scale-up: In-field cultivation of barley cultivars producing human GFs proceeded as planned, bridging the gap until the animal GFs became available in the second half of the project, phasing out ORFs current human GFs. Development of new barley cultivars producing animal GFs proceeded as planned, except that ORF added several new cultivars, with new animal GFs, in addition to those planned in the Grant Agreement. This was done in accordance with expressed interest by CCM companies. Bioactivity of all new GFs was tested by outside lab (SBH Sciences, USA) and cooperating partners among CCM companies. In all cases the bioactivity of the purified growth factors was equivalent or better than industry standard. In-field cultivation trials in Iceland and Canada were successful for both years, resulting in expected amount of high-quality barley grains.
WP2, Optimization of processing: Optimization of seed processing was completed, resulting in a new high-throughput setup of equipment-line for seed cleaning, de-hulling and milling, already tested and in use. Larger extraction vessels were bought and tested; the equipment-line can now easily work with more than 100kg of barley grain in a short timeframe as was the goal. Optimization in extraction and subsequent purification steps for each GF resulted in several fold increases in yield, thereby significantly reducing the cost. A new affinity technology for purification of target proteins was implemented and demonstrated to work efficiently, however, this process took more time and effort than projected to optimize and demonstrated some limitations in economical scale-up due to scale-up problems from supplier of critical component. Therefore, a modified version of the technology was optimized and replaced by a continuous clarification step and high-capacity sieves. This setup has also facilitated the optimization of buffer exchange in the last steps of the purification procedure.
WP3, Industrial product design and optimization: Optimization of the processing reduced the need for raw materials quite significantly and made it possible to switch from pharma grade to food grade for some key ingredients lowered the cost further. The high-capacity sieves are connected to a highly automated feed system, which makes the run semi-automated. At present all customers are receiving the final GF product in a freeze-dried format but a lot of testing has been done indicating that other, simpler, low-cost and more user-friendly formats are just as bioactive. Some customers have received those formats and evaluated the activity. Design and production of packaging for freeze-dried MESOkine GFs portfolio was finalized and is being used for all MESOkine products sold to several CCM companies. All feedback from the customers is positive, the GFs perform as well or better than industry standard.
WP4, Preparation for commercial rollout: ORF has attended a substantial number of conferences and seminars and presented the CCMeat project and the resulting MESOkine products. Most of these events were attended on-line due to covid19 pandemic. The company is in direct contact with the majority of CCM companies in the world, has delivered samples of MESOkine GFs to most of them and initiated sales to many of them, including the leading ones. ORF is now in discussion with several companies and exploring partnership agreements. A website for MESOkine was designed and launched. The company is building up a customer base which is being managed by customer relationship management software linked to the MESOkine website. The business is being continuously monitored through direct contact with CCM companies, key organizations and opinion leaders within the CCM sector as well as through market reports, internet and social media. The business case is continuously re-analyzed in accordance with relevant new information.
WP5, IP, Risk and Project Management: One international (PCT) patent application on the composition of the MESOkine products has been filed and another patent application on the production procedure was planned at the end of the project. However, due to delays in delivery of equipment, resulting in necessary modification of processing and final optimization of the production, the filing will be done in Q1 2023. The brand MESOkine was registered and an application for further worldwide registrations sent to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). None of the projected potential risks have materialized. One unexpected new risk appeared; earthquakes and subsequent volcanic eruption in vicinity of ORFs greenhouse in Southwest Iceland. No damage has occurred nor imminent.
During the CCMeat project, ORF Genetics has developed a product line of MESOkine GFs, specifically designed for the CCM production, and is already offering them at a price which is in the range of 20-100 times lower than ORF was capable of before the project started. After providing samples to large number of CCM companies, ORF has begun selling MESOkine products, especially to the most advanced CCM companies, and expects to reach a significant market share in coming years with its strong first mover advantage and unique production host, barley. Due to the forecasted size of the meat market MESOkine™ sales are expected to grow rapidly in coming years and become a major part of the ORFs operation. By 2030, the MESOkine line will reach prices and scales of GFs allowing production of cell cultured meat at production costs with price parity to conventionally produced meat, and in scale of millions of tons of meat – truly a paradigm shift for the CCM industry. As the demand for meat continues to grow, this innovation will have a profound impact on our planet, enabling CCM to avert many of the negative consequences of conventional meat production. This includes reducing greenhouse gas emission and water use by more than 80% per kg meat produced, with up to 90% less land use and deforestation. This will also reduce significantly livestock antibiotic use.