Impact of Cell Health and Viability on Cultivated Meat Productivity

This article was sponsored by CARR Biosystems.

With regulatory clearance in three countries, cultivated meat companies are looking to expand market access and scale up cell production processes. As cultivated meat companies look to advance cell engineering and manufacturing productivity, it is important to consider the impact of cell health and viability during cell development and process optimization.

From cell seeding and differentiation through harvest, cell health and viability play a key role in cell production steps, including cell differentiation and proliferation. Understanding the role of cell health, not just viability, and how each processing step influences overall productivity is critical to a company's successful outcome.

According to bioprocessing company CARR Biosystems’ Dan Nelson, Director of Product, and Steffen Mueller, European Business Manager, CARR Biosystem’s cell processing platform is being utilized to improve cultivated meat processes globally.

Drawing from their experience with different cultivated meat and seafood startups, Nelson and Mueller highlight cell separation considerations to reach a sustainable future food system.

Cell Separation Considerations

According to Dan Nelson, the CARR Biosystems’ cell processing platform is a versatile tool that can be leveraged in many bioprocessing separation activities throughout bioprocess development and manufacturing.

“Through our platform, we are supporting cell and gene therapy, biologics, and cultivated meat companies. Cultivated meat companies are currently using our platform to optimize cell separation, washing and liquid exchange for gene editing, cell banking, seed training, cell expansion, and differentiation through [cell] product harvest.”

During cell culture handling processes, cell loss or damage can negatively affect the culture’s ability to reach target density or require additional expansion time. Nelson elaborated on how optimizing cell separation can influence cultivated meat processes.

“Optimizing cell separation applications based on the specific cell type and culture conditions is done by controlling for critical process parameters and critical to quality attributes.

“For example, high cell viability and recovery during perfusion or media exchanges throughout expansion and differentiation stages requires optimization of g-force, flow rates and processing time in concert with the cell culture vessel to minimize time outside of bioreactor.”

Importance of Cell Health and Viability

Having worked with different cultivated meat companies, Steffen Mueller explained why cell health and viability are important topics for cultivated meat companies to consider when separating cells following bioprocessing.

“The typical criteria for cell separation is cell retention and viability. Cell viability is easy to measure, as you can count the viable cells. However, there is another criterion, especially for the cultured meat industry, which is the cell proliferation rate.

“It is important that they still reproduce after separation or any other cell processing step. Customer testing has shown that cells continue to grow after the separation as if there was no separation step.”

Nelson further highlighted how CARR Biosystems’ low shear technology enables its centrifugation platform to enhance cell viability and health.

“[CARR Biosystem’s] tubular bowl centrifugation is unlike other centrifugation platforms with higher shear forces or limited processing volumes so that we can address the challenges of low viability and longer processing times, or time outside of a controlled environment.”

Early Process Development Through Manufacturing

As cultivated meat companies scale their production processes, Mueller emphasized the importance of optimizing cell separation during early development.

“The important thing is to start early by fully characterizing critical process parameters that influence the product's manufacturing efficiency and quality.”

They agreed that cultivated meat startups who engage with CARR Biosystems early on can quickly identify optimal parameters for their particular cell line and cell culture requirements to get the most out of each application. By establishing scalable parameters aligned with their development and manufacturing strategy, cultivated meat companies can choose whether to continue leveraging single-use bioprocesses or transition to a stainless-steel bioprocessing system.

Versatile Manufacturing Approaches

Considering the importance of customer support, Mueller shared that CARR Biosystems is working with customers at all development stages and in a number of applications across the cultivated meat industry.

“We work with all kinds of processes [through our platform]. The differentiation step can be done. Perfusion can be done, and so can clarification and cell collection.

“So [we offer] a very versatile solution which can be used in more than just one process step which brings certain manufacturing efficiencies.”

Conclusion: Scaling and Collaborating for the Future of Food

While more cultivated meat companies are receiving regulatory approval to launch, the industry continues to progress in optimizing and scaling production processes.

According to Nelson, CARR Biosystems is looking forward to continuing to support the cultivated meat industry as it addresses its scaling challenges and expands globally. “There are exciting advancements happening, technically and publicly.

“CARR Biosystems is eager to support developers as they navigate technology and processing considerations to reach their manufacturing productivity targets.”

This article was sponsored by CARR Biosystems.