TissenBioFarm
Revolutionizing the Production of Next-Gen Cultivated Meat

Picture this: a food critic sets out on a gastronomic adventure to discover the finest steak at a Michelin-starred restaurant. As he indulges in the succulent dish, little does he know there is a remarkable twist to it; it is made entirely of ‘cultivated meat.’ This meat is made by growing cells and impeccably replicates the sensory experience of conventional meat—from its texture, taste, and chewiness, to its delightful flavors.

Thanks to the ingenuity of TissenBioFarm, a cutting-edge food biotech company, this scenario is now at the verge of becoming a culinary reality.

Using world-class tissue engineering and biotechnologies, TissenBioFarm is revolutionizing the food production industry with a breakthrough method of producing cultivated meat that perfectly mimics the organoleptic properties of traditional meat, such as flavor, aroma, touch, and appearance.

“Our mission is to overcome the industry’s technical limitations, including mass production, whole-cut, meat texture, and marbling, and provide much greener and superior meat while protecting the animals and environment,” says Yeonjoo La, chief strategy officer of TissenBioFarm.

Rightly so, its innovative approach to food production is reflected in its name, which encompasses three fundamental concepts; tissue engineering, biotechnology, and farming.

TissenBioFarm recognizes the vital components of cell agriculture, cells, scaffolds and culture media, as the building blocks of cultivated meat. However, it also understands that simply relying on these components is not enough to produce food on a massive scale. That’s why it has introduced the concept of biofabrication, which involves using cells, bioactive molecules, and biomaterials to create biologically functional products. In the context of cultivated meat, this methodology enables TissenBioFarm to mass-produce physically structured meat with carefully selected ingredients.

One strength of TissenBioFarm’s technology is the biomimicry of meat, which allows TissenBioFarm to replicate meat structures from the microscopic level to full cuts of steak, complete with rare textures and marbling. Recently, it created a 10-kilogram prototype as big as the human torso, with a remarkably realistic shape that surprised many people.

It has developed seven edible bio-inks to increase the nutritional value with its in-house biomaterials technology. The bio-inks are made from various food resources like mushrooms, vegetables, grains, and legumes to add the required nutrition and functional value for cell growth.

Today, TissenBioFarm’s manufacturing system can produce all types and parts of meat at ultra-fast speed, with the ability to simultaneously fabricate flesh and fat. Compared to conventional 3D bioprinting, its technology is up to 8,500 times faster. These technological advancements contribute to its ability to produce sustainable cultivated meat.

This cultivated meat brings no damage to the environment. Compared to conventionally farmed beef, cultivated meat uses significantly fewer resources. According to a research paper published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, cultivated meat production requires 45 percent less energy, emits 96 percent fewer greenhouse gases, and uses 99 percent less land.

TissenBioFarm is committed to finding innovative solutions to address the cost challenges associated with cell culture media. It has a clear strategy to remedy the problem and has succeeded in a proof of concept (POC) in April. It expects to fully develop the technology by the end of 2023.

This commitment to innovation is rooted in TissenBioFarm’s origins in the tissue engineering lab at POSTECH, a top-tier research university in South Korea. Its biotechnologists and tissue engineering experts come from many years of research and development in artificial medical organs, led by CEO Wonil Han, who holds a Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering from POSTECH, and Prof. Dong-Woo Cho from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at POSTECH.

Their never-ending appetite for better capabilities and newer technologies equips TissenBioFarm with a roadmap focused on enhancing cell-culture infrastructure. It is planning to build a pilot production facility for its developed bio-ink. At the same time, by 2025, it has plans to build a cultivated meat production system beyond its current laboratory level and produce tonnes of cultivated meat in a year.

TissenBioFarm’s popularization of cultivated meat ‘out of the lab, and into the frying pan,’ solves the problems of animal ethics in the slaughter process and the global climate crisis.