Public Funding for Unicorn Biotechnologies Ltd

Currently, many cellular therapeutics are cultured using labour-intensive, error-prone and costly methods of manufacture. Unicorn Biotechnologies has built an end-to-end fully automated system for the next generation of cell therapy manufacturing that decouples and streamlines human labour involvement. Leading to reduced cost of goods, improved production efficiency, quality and consistency. Enabling the low-cost democratisation of cell therapy manufacture and beyond to any cell-based biotherapeutic product. This project will bring together experts in biomanufacturing/hardware engineering and mathematical modellers to build fully autonomous "smart" bioproduction machines.

The culture of mammalian cells underpins almost all life science R&D, is involved in the production of many therapeutics including recombinant proteins, antibodies, vaccines and underpins many next-generation therapeutics such as cell therapies for personalised medicine. One significant bottleneck preventing the widespread adoption of such technologies and additionally, their incorporation into clinical practice, is the infrastructure needed to manufacture such therapies in technoeconomically feasible ways. Unicorn Biotechnologies has made an end-to-end automated modular and scalable cell manufacturing system that automatically manufactures such cell products with minimal user input. This project will enhance the quality and reproducibility of our manufacturing system further by working with state-of-the-art specialist governmental technology institutions to perform detailed chemical and biological characterization of the materials used in our biomanufacturing platform.

World meat consumption has tripled since 1970 and will increase a further 76% by 2050\. In the future, there will not be enough meat available for the world's population. This shortage will hit low-and-middle-income countries, where meat is an important but limited source of nutrient-dense protein, vitamins and minerals, especially hard. Over 80 billion animals are slaughtered annually for meat, the majority being factory-farmed. Increasing livestock production isn't the answer as this promotes climate change, environmental destruction and infectious disease spread. Livestock farming generates 15% of human-made greenhouse gas (GHG) and will contribute 0.5°C to global temperatures if continued. Cattle-ranching and animal-feed crops also account for most agricultural water use and 85% of rainforest clearance. Overcrowding and poor welfare standards help spread diseases, including swine and avian flu, and are major contributors to human food poisoning. Excessive livestock antibiotic use is fueling increases in antibiotic-resistant bacteria which render antibiotic medication useless: Alarmingly, antibiotic-resistant pathogens are forecast to cause greater mortality than cancer by 2050\. Cultivated meat (CM) grows animal cells in bioreactors to produce a product similar to conventional meat but without the need for any animal suffering. CM will also use fewer resources (energy, land and water) and produces less GHG, counteracting environmental issues. Since CM only requires a few cells from animals, it eliminates farming welfare issues and antibiotic use. CM, which appeals to consumers considerate of these issues, is undertaken in carefully controlled, sterile conditions vastly improving food safety. The global US$246.9Mn CM market is set to increase to $6.8Bn by 2030\. However, to achieve this forecast, this new approach needs to produce meat at a scale before it can then address future meat shortages. The first CM burger cost $330,000, demonstrating edible CM products are possible albeit at very high costs. The challenge is to make CM in large amounts, using a cost-effective and market-competitive process. Millions of tons of meat are consumed annually, so this will ultimately necessitate the development of massive (\>10,000L) bioreactors capable of generating very high-density cell cultures. This requires cells capable of growing under demanding conditions and carefully balancing nutrients and cell-toxic by-products. These nutrients (such as growth factors) need to be cheap, well-characterised and perform consistently. This project combines the skills and capabilities of three UK universities and four UK companies developing livestock cell lines, recombinant protein technologies, hydrogels and bioreactor components to collaboratively develop technological solutions for CM production.

World meat consumption has tripled since 1970 and will increase a further 76% by 2050, posing a significant sustainability challenge. Livestock farming contributes to 15% of human-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which further exacerbates climate change, environmental destruction, and infectious disease outbreaks. Cultivated meat (CM) is an approach that rather than utilising animal agriculture as a source of proteins for human consumption, uses cell-based technologies to grow protein in a slaughter-free way. CM requires fewer resources, including energy, land, and water, and generates fewer GHG emissions compared to traditional livestock farming. It also eliminates concerns related to animal welfare and excessive antibiotic use. The major barriers preventing this approach from entering the consumer market relate to a mixture of economic and technical barriers. For this technological approach to be realized three principle components are needed, cells, growth media, and machines. This project seeks to develop panels of cell lines (the starting basis of all cultivated meat, Unicorn Bio, Trading as Dragon Bio) that will be released for sale to cultivated meat R&D tool developers and commercial manufacturers. Furthermore, we seek to develop growth media additives (MarraBio) that, simultaneously, significantly extend the variety of cell types amenable to be manufactured at industrial scales and vastly reduce the cost of such production. Thereby enabling the industry to move towards techno-economic feasibility, as well as the mass manufacture and consumer market entry of such products