Emerging Trends in Cell Technology
By Dominique Lefebvre and Peter Bak, PhD
Overview
The ability to facilitate the growth and expansion of mammalian cells in vitro has been at the backbone of a wave of therapeutic innovations in the biotech space. Increasingly the know-how, materials, and equipment to harness cells as factories to produce complex proteins for therapeutic uses is being directed toward consumer applications.
As an example, cultured meat is manufactured for human consumption by growing animal cells in vitro. In 2023, the FDA and USDA approved Upside Foods’ and Good Meat’s cultivated chicken for commercial production and sale. A key challenge for the next stage of this and other emerging technologies (e.g., VitroLab’s lab-grown leather, Biomilq’s cultured breast milk) is to bring down costs and make it viable for mass-production.
While a more established technologies, the propagation and growth of cells as medicine faces its own manufacturing challenges as demand is outpacing capacity. Significant innovation is occurring to streamline and scale cell processes for timely and cost-effective manufacturing. Given the critical nature of production and scale to both medical and consumer applications, Back Bay Life Science Advisors assessed the financing landscape for cell culture technologies across these business models.