MEDFORD, Mass. – The Healey-Driscoll administration and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) have awarded $2,136,711 to the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture to establish the Foodtech Engineering for Alternative Sustainable Technologies (FEAST) center. The new center will advance cellular agricultural research at Tufts. The grant is through MassTech’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) program, which helps close the gap between innovation and commercialization for Massachusetts manufacturers.
FEAST is aligned with the Manufacturing USA Institute BioMADE and will help companies and academic partners advance the prototyping of cellular agricultural products using cutting-edge equipment. The project is expected to create 60 new jobs in Massachusetts’ bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem.
“We’re proud of the advances Massachusetts is making in cellular agriculture, leveraging our biomanufacturing infrastructure and research expertise to address the challenges of climate change and shifting supply chains,” said Massachusetts Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao. “With Tufts University leading the charge, we’re fostering innovation and creating new opportunities for our workforce in this emerging field."
“This investment in FEAST is an important step forward for innovation in bioindustrial manufacturing and food science,” said MassTech Deputy Director and Chief Investment Strategist, and Interim CAM Director Ben Linville-Engler. “By adding infrastructure specifically focused on cellular agriculture, this investment will greatly accelerate the translation of Tufts research to deployed products and help advance new manufacturing processes and technologies. FEAST will also enable companies and academic institutions throughout the state to test and commercialize their cellular agriculture products, accelerating food technology innovation in Massachusetts.”
FEAST will serve as an accessible facility for business and academic partners. The center will be equipped with cutting-edge equipment to produce cells and form those cells into final products, as well as a test kitchen to evaluate taste, texture and other product features. Academic groups and industry organizations may use FEAST’s infrastructure on a fee-for-service basis to prototype cellular agriculture products.
One such organization, Deco Labs, develops enabling technologies for cellular agriculture, and is ready to take advantage of the new resource.
“We will be moving our research facilities to co-locate with the FEAST center, as having access to scale-up and sensory evaluation capabilities will be critical to the rapid deployment of our new technologies,” said Natalie Rubio, CEO of Deco Labs.
“There are now over 170 startups in cellular agriculture worldwide and a handful of cultivated meat products have been approved for public consumption, including in the US,” said David Kaplan, Stern family endowed professor of engineering at Tufts and director of TUCCA. “Massachusetts is without question a focal point for research and development in cellular agriculture, so this investment in FEAST is critical to nurture and grow a commercial industry within the State, not only by advancing the fundamental tools and technology, and testing new products, but also through workforce development.
The M2I2 program supports hardtech innovators by investing in capital equipment and connecting companies with partner institutions to help advance their projects. M2I2 has invested more than $100 million in Massachusetts organizations since 2015 and created more than 1,000 jobs in various manufacturing sectors.
About the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech
The mission of the Massachusetts Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) is to foster the most complete, collaborative, and agile manufacturing ecosystem, to enable business growth from innovation through production. CAM is a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a public economic development agency tasked with supporting business formation and growth in the Commonwealth’s tech and innovation sectors. CAM provides a path for manufacturing growth through a connected, accessible ecosystem that supports innovation, workforce development and a business-friendly environment. CAM managed programs include the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, the MassBridge manufacturing training program, and the massmakes.org portal. Learn more at https://cam.masstech.org/.
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