Open Cell Bank

Mission

We are working to democratize the fundamental building blocks of cultivated meat.

Cultivated meat researchers around the world share a fundamental need: access to relevant, well-studied, and fit-for-purpose cell lines. By making food-relevant cell lines and accompanying media formulations available for researchers across the field, we are working to:

• Lower barriers to entry to allow new players to enter the field faster
• Distribute shared tools to improve reproducibility and data sharing
• Offer resources to reduce animal use in cell ag research and beyond
   

Initiating the TUCCA Open Cell Bank

As we continue to build the TUCCA Open Cell Bank, we will share current and upcoming resources here:

Suspension-adapted Immortalized Bovine Fibroblasts

SCiFi Foods, previously Artemys Foods, was a cultivated meat start-up focusing on the development of a hybrid plant-based/cultivated beef product. Through the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technologies to knock out p53 and insert Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT), they developed immortalized bovine cell lines, then adapted several of these cell lines for growth in single-cell suspension—a highly attractive phenotype for scale-up of cultivated meat.

When SCiFi Foods announced its closure and began the process of selling its intellectual property in 2024, The Good Food Institute (GFI) and Tufts collaborated to obtain these cell lines and their associated media formulations (GFI), and bank them for future distribution in the TUCCA Open Cell Bank (Tufts). 

We are now working to make these cell lines widely available. For researchers from academia and industry interested in accessing the cells, join the waitlist by completing this form. Shipments to academic researchers will begin first, with Tufts and GFI working to facilitate access to the cells by commercial entities at a later phase. Planned initial cell line offerings and media formulations can be found below:

Tufts-developed Immortalized Cells

Currently, Tufts-developed immortalized cells can be found through other providers. We will update this page as more cell lines are made available through the TUCCA Open Cell Bank.

• Genetically immortalized adherent bovine satellite cells from kerafast or ABM
• Spontaneously immortalized adherent mackerel satellite cells from kerafast
   

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to the Culley Carlson Foundation for their pivotal support in getting the cell bank off the ground, the Astera Institute for funding initial expansion and banking of the SCiFi Foods cell lines, and the Good Food Institute for their continued collaboration. We would also like to thank Alexi Goranov (SCiFi Foods’ former VP of R&D) for his technical advice, and Joshua March (former co-founder & CEO) and Kasia Gora (former co-founder & CTO) for their support.

Lastly, the TUCCA Open Cell Bank is an initiative of the Tufts Cellular Agriculture Commercialization Lab. We are extremely grateful to members of the team who led this effort, notably Olivia Calkins and Olympe Jean, who were instrumental in its early progress.
 

Contact Us

Please reach out to opencellbank@tufts.edu with questions.

Depositing Resources

If you have a cell line that you would like to deposit in the TUCCA Open Cell Bank, please email opencellbank@tufts.edu.