The availability of cost-efficient growth factors will be essential for cellular agriculture to validate its economic feasibility.
TurtleTree Labs, the global leader in cell-based milk, today announced the launch of TurtleTree Scientific, dedicated to the growth of food grade growth factors. Despite the costs of producing cell-based meat declining over the years, the cell culture media and growth factors remain one of the biggest cost contributors, hindering the path to market.
In early 2021, TurtleTree Scientific will be working with cell-based meat companies on the production of food grade growth factors. TurtleTree Scientific, the new unit will work with ‘lab-grown’ meat and dairy companies to produce affordable food-grade growth factors and cell culture media, building on knowhow developed in house by its parent company while producing its own cell-based milk products. The prices are expected to be a fraction of pharmaceutical grade equivalents on the market. Singapore, as the first country in the world to approve the sale of cell based meat products, is strategic as the country is bound to attract the attention of more cell-based companies and has existing customers that it can scale with.
The availability of cost-efficient growth factors will be essential for cellular agriculture to validate its economic feasibility. In addition, Singapore is also a regional biotech hub where quality growth factors are in high demand for their use in the life sciences industry.
“Not only are we collaborating with local research institutes like NUS and NTU, but also global institutions like Wageningen University in the Netherlands. We have already started sending some samples to other cell based meat companies and aim to play a major role in this industry,” says Max Rye, Chief Strategist of TurtleTree Labs.
