Public Funding for Aelius Biotech Limited

Cultivated meat promises to revolutionize the food industry by providing a more ethical and greener alternative to animal products, whilst retaining the same taste and texture. However, these products are being held back by the technical complexity of production and, in particular, the high cost of materials used in their manufacture. It is estimated that costs need to be reduced by 99% or more. A major contributor to these costs are the proteins used in production which supply biological cues to stimulate growth and ensure that the right type of meat cells are produced. Unless the cost of these proteins can be reduced by 99% or more, the sector will not be economically viable. MarraBio has have developed a radically new way to make alternatives to the proteins currently used. Its materials can be made in very large quantities, and at a cost which will make cultivated meat economically viable. So far, MarraBio has produced "research grade" versions of the products and have preliminary evidence that they will meet the needs of the sector. In the project, MarraBio will demonstrate that the products can be produced at scale and at a quality where they will meet the regulatory requirements needed for their use in cultivated meat production. If successful, by the end of the project we will be in a position to launch our products on this rapidly growing market. To achieve these aims MarraBio are partnering with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Aelius Biotech. CPI is a leader in protein manufacturing and analysis and will assist MarraBio in refining its manufacturing techniques to provide tight control over product quality and potency. Aelius Biotech have developed a model of the gut that predicts how ingested substances will affect the digestive system. Their involvement will allow MarraBio to test how their products are processed on ingestion - a critical safety step -- whilst allowing Aelius to further develop their technology towards the needs of this sector. With all participants based in North East England, their collaboration will support the rapidly growing cultivated meat sector in the region. The outcomes of the project will have a significant impact on the ability to economically produce cultivated meat. This will provide a high quality, potent product that simplifies and reduces the cost of cultivated meat manufacture.

This project aims to assess the feasibility of scaling up production of a 'Colon Kit' a research model of the human large intestine. This will meet the pressing need for effective and affordable models of the human large intestine for research and personalised medicine. This product can provide an accessible, and affordable cutting edge research tool for labs. The product also has diagnostic and prognostic potential. The tool can be used to carry out patient specific investigations and treatment screens to better identify effective treatments. The Human Microbiome Market is valued at $376.3 Million (2019) with CAGR of 21.8% from 2020 to 2027 (VMR, 2019). The importance of the microbiome to health and disease is increasingly recognised, and health and pharmaceutical product development aims to address this need. Aelius Biotech are a research organisation who specialise in lab models of the digestive tract, offering a range of research tools to help understand and develop formulations to improve and de-risk product development and get successful products to market. Aelius has developed and tested an early-stage prototype integrated large intestinal model -- the first of its kind that includes a cell culture system that integrates modelling of the intestinal mucus bi-layer and epithelium with the microbiome. This has potential to be a huge development in digestive modelling providing the first system capable of modelling luminal, mucus and epithelial phases of digestion in a continuous, integrated system from mouth to terminal large intestine. This project aims to make this technology accessible globally to research labs. This proposed feasibility project would draw on the expertise of CPI in 'design for manufacture'. CPI as part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult will investigate feasibility of design and manufacturing options, trial and comparison to current state-of-the art to ensure that the device meets industry needs, is usable and is acceptable to users, thereby increasing the likelihood of adoption by customers. The project includes validation of the model with commercial products to generate case studies and validation data to promote the model.