Israeli startup ProFuse Technology—best-known for media supplements claimed to dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of muscle tissue formation in cultivated meat—has moved into new territory with the launch of bovine cell lines optimized for muscle growth.
The ‘PROFUSE-B8’ bovine myoblasts—muscle progenitor cells—are spontaneously immortalized such that they will keep dividing indefinitely (so you don’t need to keep going back to the host animal to secure new cells) without the use of genetic engineering.
According to CEO Guy Nevo Michrowski, the line demonstrates high efficiency both in proliferation (the initial phase of cultivated meat production involving population doubling) and in the differentiation and maturation phase (where cells turn into muscle tissue).
It is also “highly stable,” he tells AgFunderNews: “We have been running it for over a year and we have passaged it for the 90th time. This means stability in performance.”
He adds: “It is the only cell line in the industry that is an ideal building block for a muscle production system that does not use GMO. We plan to license it to cultivated meat companies interested in developing bovine muscle products. We are also developing other cell lines with the same characteristics including porcine, ovine, avian and fish cell lines.”
When used in conjunction with ProFuse Tech’s PROFUSE-S1 media supplement, cultivated meat companies can achieve “unparalleled efficiency” through higher yields and shorter production cycles and “a substantial reduction in production costs,” claims the company, which was formed in 2021 to apply science developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
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