The research group led by Prof. Amir Sagi from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, headed by Dr. Simi Weil, in collaboration with Dr. Rivka Ofir from the Arava R&D Center and their colleague Dr. Nitin Nitin from the University of California, Davis, jointly won a three-year research grant from BARD. Within the research, they hope to build the necessary infrastructure for printing seafood on plant-based substrates.
The growing demand for sustainable food sources highlights the need for innovative solutions to enhance global food security. One of the most promising alternatives to traditional fishing and aquaculture is the production of cultured marine meat, that is, growing meat in the lab from plant based scaffolds and cells originating from crustaceans such as shrimp. The international collaboration between researchers from the U.S. and Israel may lead to a new way of producing seafood that does not depend on fishing or intensive aquaculture. This method reduces environmental harm while providing a nutritious, sustainable, and efficient source of protein to meet the world’s increasing demands.
However, there are two main challenges delaying progress in the field. First, pluripotent stem cell lines (cells capable of differentiating into all cell types) from crustaceans have not yet been developed. Second, there is a need to adopt natural, plant-based substrates to make the process more environmentally friendly and safe for consumption.
The research aims to solve both problems. The work will include the use of embryonic stem cells from the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, and their cultivation on ecological plant substrates. Even before submitting the research proposal, the Israeli research team succeeded in developing a primary culture of embryonic cells from this shrimp, which lasted 90 days and included both stem cells and differentiated cells. The laboratory has developed platforms for gene editing in cultured cells of the shrimp that will enable manipulating their differentiation into various tissues. Meanwhile, the American team developed natural and environmentally friendly substrates for culturing marine meat cells, using banana leaves that underwent a decellularization process, meaning the removal of cells.
The main goals of the research are to create stable lines of pluripotent stem cells from shrimp and to combine them with plant-based substrates. Additionally, they hope to develop protocols that will enable the differentiation of the cells into muscle tissue, so that cultured shrimp meat can be produced.
The team’s research methods include enrichment of pluripotent stem cells from the primary culture using growth factors and biochemical substances, as well as reprogramming shrimp cells with genes similar to Yamanaka factors using viral vectors, specifically lentivirus, alongside use of CRISPR gene editing technology to silence genes that inhibit pluripotency. Additionally, the research involves integration of pluripotent cells into plant-based substrates and directing their differentiation into muscle cells, based on existing protocols from mammalian stem cells.
