Growth factors for cellular agriculture including cultivated meat, fish and dairy
Cellular agriculture has the potential to transform food production and impact the health and well-being of future generations. Immediate priorities for cultivated meat and dairy process development include optimizing serum-free cell culture media to support cell expansion and maturation stages in bioreactor conditions.
Replacing animal-derived components, particularly fetal bovine serum (FBS), is essential for consistent performance, to remove the risk of contamination from viruses or prions and opens opportunities for fine-tuning of culture conditions.
Growth factors are critical components of cell culture media and provide a carefully orchestrated set of biochemical signals to control cell growth and fate. High purity, animal-free and optimized growth factors produced in an efficient microbial fermentation process provide the most reliable solution for cultivated meat and cellular agriculture.
We provide extensive CoO, CoA and animal-free (AOF/ADCF) documentation, bulk pricing, stock reservation service and opportunities for collaboration to support this important field. Please contact us to discuss further.
Species-specific growth factors for cellular agriculture
Food Standards Agency’s from around the world have continued support of alternative proteins and food innovation. In-depth reviews of current novel food frameworks, updating dossier submission platforms and updating food guidelines have resulted in further promise in this field.
With feedback from this progression and new guidelines from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in the US, it is clear cultivated meat companies are being strongly advised to use growth factors with protein sequences that are 100% homologous to the species of animal they are cultivating in the production process. Growth factors from the target species also aid consumer acceptance and species-specific activity as well as regulatory considerations.
Qkine is dedicated to supporting the cellular agriculture industry by manufacturing high-purity and bioactive growth factors that are species-specific to cultivated cultures including porcine, bovine and fish.
Frequently used growth factors where the amino acid sequence is 100% conserved between human, bovine, and porcine species
| Code | Product name | Species | Human to porcine | Human to bovine | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qk001 | Activin A | Human | 100% | 100% | Human sequence identical to porcine and bovine Activin A |
| Qk047 | IGF-1 | Human | 100% | 100% | Human sequence identical to porcine and bovine IGF-1 |
| Qk045 | NRG-1 | Human | 100% | 100% | Human sequence identical to porcine and bovine NRG-1 |
| Qk010 | TGF-β1 PLUS | Human | 100% | 100% | Human sequence identical to porcine and bovine TGF-β1 |
| Qk072 | TGF-β2 | Human | 100% | 100% | Human sequence identical to porcine and bovine TGF-β2 |
Frequently used growth factors where the amino acid sequence is similar but not 100% conserved when comparing human, bovine and porcine species
| Code | Product name | Species | Human to porcine | Human to bovine | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qk011 | EGF | Human | ~85% | – | Porcine EGF available (Qk064) Bovine EGF coming soon (enquire for more information) |
| Qk025 | FGF-2 (145 aa) | Human | ~99% | ~99% | Bovine/porcine FGF-2 (145 aa) available (Qk040) |
| Qk027 | FGF-2 (154 aa) | Human | ~99% | ~99% | Bovine/porcine FGF-2 (154 aa) available (Qk056) |
| Qk013 | HGF (NK1) | Human | ~95% | ~93% | Porcine HGF (NK1) available (Qk061) Bovine HGF (NK1) available (Qk060) |
| Qk036 | LIF | Human | 87% | 88% | Porcine and bovine LIF coming soon |
| Qk044 | PDGF-BB | Human | ~95% | 91% | Porcine PDGF-BB coming soon |
| Qk054 | TGF-β3 | Human | ~98% | ~99% | Porcine and bovine TGF-β3 coming soon |
Growth factor discovery kits for cellular agriculture
Featured resources for cellular agriculture and cultivated meat
Product focus
Animal-free cell culture with HGF natural isoform NK1
The NK1 isoform is the smallest naturally occurring splice variant of HGF, it comprises the HGF N-terminal and first kringle domain. Qkine HGF NK1 is also completely animal-free (AOF), making it suitable for chemically defined media and reproducible scale-up. This isoform promotes efficient differentiation of human iPSCs at just 10 ng/ml.
