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If you need media that scales, we'd like to help. Get in touch with us using the form below.
As the cultivated meat industry works towards delivering sustainable, affordable meat alternatives, high cost and complexity of growth media remain some of the biggest hurdles.
At Multus, we’re addressing these challenges head-on through the power of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). By integrating cutting-edge technology into our processes, we’re revolutionising media development to make it cheaper, faster, and drive the future of food.
Developing growth media for cultivated meat is a time-consuming, resource-intensive process. Each cell type has unique nutritional requirements, which makes developing optimal media formulation highly complex. Since intelligently predicting the ideal formulation is so difficult, trial-and-error testing remains the default approach for media optimisation.
These manual, low-throughput processes often lead to data variability and lengthy timelines, resulting in high R&D costs and slow innovation cycles. However, for cultivated meat companies aiming to scale, keeping R&D costs low and innovation cycles fast is critical.
We’re using machine learning (ML) and lab automation to streamline and optimise the media development process, ensuring faster, more efficient outcomes. Here’s how:
Our automated lab equipment can simultaneously test thousands of ingredient combinations to identify the most effective formulations for specific cell lines. This eliminates the need for manual preparation and significantly increases the speed of experimentation.
Introducing robotics into our media development process has enabled us to scale testing capabilities significantly. Our automated systems manage over 30 different ingredients simultaneously while generating and testing more than 1000 formulations per experiment - far beyond what’s feasible with manual methods.
Data from each experiment is collected in real-time and fed directly into our ML systems. This integration allows us to make faster, data-driven decisions and refine formulations continuously.
We use machine learning algorithms to analyse complex datasets generated during screening. These models identify patterns and predict the optimal combination of ingredients for each cell type, reducing the number of experiments needed and improving accuracy.
Our AI and automation-driven approach was fully realised in the development of Proliferum B, our animal component free (ACF) growth media formulation for bovine cells.
During this project, a team of just two scientists led the development of our Foetal Bovine Serum replacement product. Here’s a breakdown of the project:
Using automation and AI, we were able to complete the entire media development process in just 10 months. Similar projects using traditional approaches often require 2-4 years to complete.
Using this pipeline, we achieved significant cost reduction. Our optimised serum-free formulation achieved up to 5x lower cost than traditional alternatives. Additionally, cell growth performance matched that of 10% FBS. To put this into context, 10% FBS is the current go-to for cell culture, meaning cost savings did not come at the expense of effectiveness.
Without automation, a conventional optimisation process would have been limited to testing fewer than 10 ingredients at a time. Furthermore, manually testing more than 100 formulations per experiment would have been an enormous challenge. By integrating AI and robotics, we were able to conduct exponentially larger screenings, accelerating innovation while significantly reducing costs.
The cultivated meat industry faces a critical challenge: scaling production while keeping costs low and maintaining high product quality. AI and automation technologies will be able to streamline complex processes, accelerate timelines, and reduce costs, making cultivated meat a viable, scalable, and sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture.
Looking ahead, Multus is expanding its AI and automation-driven processes to new applications. One major focus is scaling to 3D applications, enabling more structured cultivated meat products.
Additionally, we are working on expanding our ingredient library and refining our formulations to enhance cost-efficiency and performance. Our ultimate goal is to continue developing new, optimised growth media solutions that push the cultivated meat industry closer to large-scale, affordable production.
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