COMPUTER MODELING

A model is an encapsulation of knowledge actionable through computer simulation. What would normally take months of lab experimentation to generate insight can be achieved in a day of simulation. Virtual experiments using these models cost much less and enable scientists to hone their choices of the more expensive and time-consuming experiments, thus accelerating R&D.

applying modeling to cultivated meat

The Cultivated Meat industry promises to mitigate climate change, world hunger, and ocean depletion by displacing fish, poultry, and greenhouse gas emitting livestock with affordable, cultivated meat over the next two decades. Designing products that meet consumer demands and expectations will require copious prototyping prior to mass production.

the problem with laboratory prototyping

Laboratory prototyping is time consuming, and expensive - in both labor and materials. Experiments may take weeks, with mistakes and delays having a cumulative impact on limited budgets when striving to be the first to market.

The solution is to use Computer Aided Design (CAD) to hone lab experiments using faster, cheaper, virtual experiments. Just as in safety crash testing in the automotive industry, computers are great at managing complexity and creating models that encapsulate and categorize knowledge in the life sciences. This allows biologists to reach insights faster and more efficiently. If we take the growth of skin tissue as an example, Biocellion SPC, one of CMMC’s members, reports that customer experiments taking 3 weeks in the laboratory and costing hundreds of dollars can be simulated in less than a day and $25 of leased computer time.

a range of possibilities

The base knowledge and technology for applying computer modeling to the science behind cultivated meat already exists. Models that deepen understanding of how new skin tissue grows, its elastic properties, and its barrier function, have all been built with virtual experiments. These virtual models have been validated against physical experiments.

Going back to cultivating a steak: imagine being able to modify nutrient concentrations, scaffold designs, and temperature, while observing the impact on growth rate, the patterning of different cell types (marbling), elasticity (mouthfeel), and water content (cooking qualities), in just hours of computing time and without waste. Imagine computers exploring the enormous space of growth process possibilities, providing just the optimal configurations for final verification in the laboratory. Imagine getting the affordable high-quality cultivated meat products consumers demand to market years sooner than would be possible without computational modeling — that is our vision.