Bachelor or Master Thesis on Optimization Processes for Cultured Meat

Meat is a crucial source of protein for humans, but its growing demand, driven by population increase, poses significant ethical, environmental, and health challenges. Traditional meat production is linked to animal welfare issues, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic diseases and it significantly impacts the environment by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water consumption. Consequently, there is an urgent need for sustainable and ethical meat alternatives.

 

Cultured meat presents a promising solution, offering substantial environmental benefits such as reduced energy use, land requirements, and greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, it presents several challenges, including the need to develop effective, scalable, and sustainable scaffolds to support cell adhesion and growth. It is imperative that cultured meat scaffolds be composed of non-animal-derived materials to guarantee ethical and regulatory compliance.

Previously, our research group at the Fraunhofer IME in Aachen has successfully developed a novel alginate-guar gum-konjac glucomannan (AGK) scaffold with a great property as a cultured meat analog (Chiu et. al., Future Foods (2025): 100795.). The aim of this project is to increase the cell adhesion rate in AGK scaffolds by 1) surface modification or 2) hydrogel encapsulation with plant-based materials to increase the cell maintenance ability. In addition, the mechanobiological response with bioreactor stimulation will also be investigated.