Bezos backs taste-good lab proteins

Jeff Bezos is bankrolling two new centers to research and develop sustainable proteins that taste good and can be produced in the lab. The Amazon founder is donating $60 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to research, create and commercialize new dietary proteins that are environmentally friendly and affordable. The Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London and North Carolina State University (NCSU) will become one of the largest university-based investments to focus on developing plant-based meat substitutes, proteins made by fermentation, and lab-made meat, fish and shellfish grown from cells. Other record investments into cultivated meat and animal-free dairy include the Dutch governments $65 million committed to a national initiative in 2022.

The newly set up NCSU Center will bring together researchers in academia and industry to focus on biomanufacturing. The center will look to optimize lab techniques for growing cells taken directly from donor animals, at high density and in culture conditions that increase yields. The aim is to scale up to lower the costs of lab-cultivated meat, which is currently too expensive to be part of an everyday diet.

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