Project description
Maturing the market for cultured meat
The cultured meat market is growing as it offers an alternative to meat farming and industry that generates high emissions. The industry is actively seeking ways to increase production efficiency. Processes that can speed up and enhance the efficiency of myoblast fusion would facilitate this achievement. The discovery of a signalling cascade that enhances myoblast fusion meets the needs of the field of cultured meat, which builds upon the techniques used for decades in the in vitro study of myogenesis. The EU-funded SuperFusion project will improve the maturity of this idea by implementing a pre-commercial prototype of the proposed product and explore its commercialisation potential.
Objective
The global population is expected to reach 9 billion mark by 2050 which will cause an increase of 70% on the global demand for food. However, if the global trends of meat and animal products consumption continue at the current rate, the global mean temperature will rise by over 2C despite the emissions of non-agricultural sectors being drastically decreased. Therefore, a growing need exists to develop more efficient protein production options. During embryonic muscle development, myoblasts proliferate and undergo differentiation, a multistep process which requires cell cycle withdrawal, initiation of a muscle specific gene transcriptional program, differentiation into fusion competent myoblasts, and ultimately cell-to-cell fusion to form nascent multinucleated myotubes that mature to form contractile muscle fibers. We have identified a novel signaling cascade, that is easily controlled by a small molecule inhibitor, leading to faster and more robust in vitro muscle formation than can be achieved with the conventional differentiation medium. This occurs through the induction of synchronous differentiation and ultimately enhanced cell-to-cell fusion of the muscle progenitor cells. The discovery of a signaling cascade which enhances myoblast fusion draws parallels to the needs of the newly established and ever-growing field of cultured meat, which builds upon the techniques used for decades in the in vitro study of myogenesis. The cultured meat industry is actively seeking ways to increase production efficiency in order to reach price-parity with the current meat industry. Therefore, taking advantage of processes that can speed up and enhance efficiency of myoblast fusion would facilitate this achievement. The goals of the PoC project are to improve the maturity of our idea by bringing it to higher TRLs (Technology Readiness Levels), implement a pre-commercial prototype of the proposed product and explore its commercialization potential.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering fibers
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-POC1
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
7610001 Rehovot
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.