Cellular agriculture: Industrial biotechnology for food and materials

Heiko Rischer, Géza R. Szilvay, Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview Articlepeer-review

138 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fundamental changes of agriculture and food production are inevitable. Providing food for an increasing population will be a great challenge that coincides with the pressure to reduce negative environmental impacts of conventional agriculture. Biotechnological manufacturing of acellular products for food and materials has already been piloted but the full profit of cellular agriculture is just beginning to emerge. Cultured meat is a promising technology for animal-based proteins but still needs further development. The concept of plant cells as food offers a very attractive alternative to obtain healthy, protein-rich and nutritionally balanced food raw material. Moreover, cultured microbes can be processed into a wide range of biosynthetic materials. A better control over structural properties will be increasingly important in all cultured cell applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)128-134
JournalCurrent Opinion in Biotechnology
Volume61
Early online date8 Jan 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2020
MoE publication typeA2 Review article in a scientific journal

Funding

GS acknowledges the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence Program, especially the Center of Excellence in Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials (HYBER).

Keywords

  • cellular agriculture
  • plant cells

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