Israeli bioproduction company Enzymit has announced the successful development of insulin substituents, in partnership with Aleph Farms.

Using proprietary algorithms and throughput testing capabilities, Enzymit was able to develop a variety of insulin substituents and experimentally assess their functionality. Further screening resulted in several leading substituents that exhibited superior results in activity for cell culturing and required minimal concentration for activation.

These new proteins, which demand notably fewer downstream purification and maturation processes, have the potential to reduce the cost and development time for producing cultivated meat at scale.

A “prohibitive expense” in scaling up cultivated meat production is developing non-animal-derived serum protein mimetics that promote and support cell growth – these proteins are not widely available in the current market at the quantity, quality and cost necessary for large-scale production.

Aleph Farms and Enzymit have co-developed novel insulin substituents in microorganisms that are able to fulfil the function of proteins found naturally in animals, and with greater desired activity per molecule.

Neta Lavon, CTO of Aleph Farms, said: “Developing more suitable processing aids for the production of cultivated meat is imperative for driving economies of scale and taking cultivated meat mainstream. This innovation, combining Enzymit’s outstanding protein design and experimental capabilities with our team’s expertise in cellular agriculture, is helping to build the foundations for our sector to achieve cost-efficiency and long-term impact.”

According to Enzymit, as insulin is a conserved protein across mammals and other species, it has the potential to similarly influence the production of other cultivated meat types – not just cow cells – such as porcine, ovine and poultry.

Enzymit’s CEO, Gideon Lapidoth, commented: “With recombinant proteins currently accounting for the overwhelming majority of cell culture costs, creating highly stable and more active insulin substituents can markedly reduce the cost of growth media and increase efficiency in producing cultivated meat at scale.”

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