Researchers at Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) have developed immortalised bovine muscle stem cells (iBSCs) that can grow rapidly and divide hundreds of times, and possibly indefinitely, to produce meat in bioreactors. The development means that researchers and companies around the world can have access to and develop new products without having to source cells repeatedly from farm animal biopsies. The production of cell-cultured meat will require muscle and fat cells with a very high capacity to grow and divide. While cell-grown meat has garnered media attention with examples such as the FDA preliminary approval of cultured chicken, and even a hamburger grown with mastodon DNA, the products are still expensive and difficult to scale up. The new persistent bovine cell lines will lower the barrier of entry for other researchers to explore cellular agriculture, finding ways to reduce costs and overcome challenges to scaled-up production.
