BioCraft Pioneers Use of AI in Cultivated Meat Development
October 10, 2023 - 4 min read
VIENNA, Austria – October 10, 2023 – BioCraft Pet Nutrition, the first biotech company to develop cultivated meat for the pet food market, today unveiled its new Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning tool that accelerates R&D to achieve optimal cell proliferation and nutrient production.
BioCraft’s unique, proprietary tool first collects and processes data from publicly available scientific literature and databases. It then synthesizes this data into a picture of the biochemical machinery inside a cell, and analyzes it to identify potential nutrient inputs that can elicit or enhance cell growth, nutrient biosynthesis, or other biological processes that are key to cultivated meat production.
“The main costs and time sinks on the way to commercialization are R&D-related, and our AI has substantially streamlined this process, accelerated our progress, and reduced costs,” said BioCraft founder and CEO Dr. Shannon Falconer. “In this application, AI can surpass the human brain for speed and efficiency, and helps us derive more complex conclusions by making more connections between more facts.”
BioCraft’s AI is similar to the platforms used by pharmaceutical companies for nearly a decade to help identify new drug targets and predict previously unknown metabolic effects, such as which chemical inputs and combinations elicit desired behaviors or inhibit undesirable ones. BioCraft’s platform processes vast volumes of data collected from countless sources, and can even point researchers to the appropriate source, down to a specific sentence in a scientific paper.
Armed with AI, BioCraft is engaging in fewer—and more targeted—experiments in the lab to fine-tune its cell proliferation process and enhance the nutritional value of its cultivated meat. It can also identify less expensive inputs and ingredients, as well as those less likely to raise concerns in the regulatory approval process.
BioCraft cultivated meats offer all essential nutrients cats and dogs need, without chemical contaminants, antibiotics, steroids or other hormones, and are significantly less likely to carry pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and other common fecal-borne bacteria. BioCrafted meats are nutritionally robust, with all required protein, key vitamins, fats and amino acids such as taurine—a nutrient typically lost during high-heat processing during the rendering process of conventional meat, then added back in synthetic form for nutritionally complete pet foods.
BioCraft is working directly with pet food manufacturers interested in transitioning their conventional meat ingredients to supply-chain stable, sustainable, safe, humane cultivated meat. BioCraft meat is available as a one-to-one replacement for the meat slurry used in conventional pet food manufacturing, usable in wet or dry foods, treats, and fresh pet foods.
Conventional meat production—for pets and people—has devastating consequences, including climate change, animal cruelty and risks to public health. Animals are fed diets laden with antibiotics, a primary contributor to antibiotic resistance in humans and pets, and hormonal steroids to accelerate their growth. The intensive confinement of animals to slaughter for meat is contributing to air and water pollution, deforestation, desertification and ocean dead zones, while also promoting deadly outbreaks and zoonotic diseases. More than 25 percent of the environmental impact of animal agriculture is attributed to feeding pets in the U.S. alone: if cats and dogs occupied their own country, they would be the world’s fifth largest meat-consuming nation.
About BioCraft
BioCraft Pet Nutrition, founded in 2016, is the first and only biotech company to create meat-based pet food that doesn’t come at the expense of slaughtering other animals. BioCraft was also the first to create a proprietary growth medium as an alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS), helping reduce production costs by well over an order of magnitude and representing a key step towards commercial scale. Today, the BioCraft team includes a roster of PhD scientists, a veterinarian, and serial entrepreneurs, all focused on taking animals out of the supply chain by producing the healthiest, most environmentally sustainable and supply-chain stable meat for dogs and cats. BioCraft is located in North America and Europe, with R&D performed via its subsidiary company, BioCraft Pet Nutrition GmbH in Austria. BioCraft investors include Draper Associates, SOSV, KEEN Growth Capital, Orkla Food Ingredients, Sentient Investment, Hack Capital and angel investors. BioCraft Pet Nutrition GmbH is a recipient of grant funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). For more information visit https://www.biocraftpet.com.
