David Kilian has received a research grant from NWO and the National Growth Fund’s Cellular Agriculture program

We are proud to share that a consortium led by David Kilian has been awarded a research grant from NWO and the National Growth Fund’s Cellular Agriculture (CA) program for his project 'MeatUp – Engineering the Future of Whole-Meat Cuts through Biomanufacturing'

In a five-year project, the team is combining the training of the future workforce for cellular agriculture with innovative research on future alternative protein sources: scaling up production of tunable biomaterials, and integrating biofabrication approaches with novel bioreactor designs. David Kilian will lead the project. It will be implemented together with Dr. Antoinette Kazbar from Wageningen University, Dr. Olaf Brouwers from Hogeschool Zuyd, Chemelot Innovation Learning Labs (CHILL), IamFluidics, SeaweedLand, Sartorius GmbH, and directly involved private parties. Thus, the project brings together expertise from biofabrication, bioprocess engineering, cell biology and design of edible biomaterials. Together, the project will scale-up the production of cell-material building blocks, use natural resources (e.g. seaweed, algae) to increase nutritious value and tissue development, and connect processing techniques to bioreactors for further tissue maturation.

Main applicant: dr. David Kilian - MERLN Institute, Maastricht University

Co-applicants: dr. Olaf Brouwers - Hogeschool Zuyd, dr. Antoinette Kazbar - Wageningen University & Research, dr. Lorenzo Moroni - Maastricht University, dr. Matt Baker - Maastricht University.

Consortium partners: CHILL, IamFluidics B.V., Sartorius GmbH, Seaweedland (Iceventures BV).