The Healey-Driscoll administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) have awarded $2.14 million to the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA).

The funding will be used to establish the Foodtech Engineering for Alternative Sustainable Technologies (FEAST) centre, which will advance cellular agriculture research at Tufts.

The grant, made through MassTech’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) programme, is designed to help close the gap between innovation and commercialisation for Massachusetts manufacturers.

The FEAST centre will help companies and academic partners advance the prototyping of cell-ag products using cutting-edge equipment and is expected to create 60 new jobs in Massachusetts’ bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem.

The centre’s high-tech equipment will enable partners to produce cells and form those cells into final products, as well as a test kitchen to evaluate taste, texture and other product features.

Academic groups and industry organisations will be able to use FEAST’s infrastructure on a fee-for-service basis to prototype cellular agriculture products.

Massachusetts’ Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao said: “We’re proud of the advances Massachusetts is making in cellular agriculture, leveraging our biomanufacturing infrastructure and research expertise to address the challenges of climate change and shifting supply chains. With Tufts University leading the charge, we’re fostering innovation and creating new opportunities for our workforce in this emerging field."

MassTech deputy director and chief investment strategist, and interim CAM director, Ben Linville-Engler, added: “This investment in FEAST is an important step forward for innovation in bioindustrial manufacturing and food science. By adding infrastructure specifically focused on cellular agriculture, this investment will greatly accelerate the translation of Tufts research to deployed products and help advance new manufacturing processes and technologies. FEAST will also enable companies and academic institutions throughout the state to test and commercialise their cellular agriculture products, accelerating food technology innovation in Massachusetts.”

Deco Labs, which develops technologies for cell-ag, is ready to take advantage of the new resource. “We will be moving our research facilities to co-locate with the FEAST centre, as having access to scale-up and sensory evaluation capabilities will be critical to the rapid deployment of our new technologies,” said Natalie Rubio, CEO of Deco Labs.

David Kaplan, professor of engineering at Tufts and director of TUCCA, added: “Massachusetts is without question a focal point for research and development in cellular agriculture, so this investment in FEAST is critical to nurture and grow a commercial industry within the state, not only by advancing the fundamental tools and technology, and testing new products, but also through workforce development".

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