Abstract

The field of cultured meat consists of evolving primary muscle cells into mature muscle tissues through different three-dimensional growth configurations. The aim is to provide an eco-friendlier alternative to traditional animal agriculture due to both environmental and ethical concerns. A major challenge in the cultured meat field is the need for supplementing expensive growth factors into cell culture media, which make up over 90% of the production cost. Studying endogenous growth factor production in these heterogeneous cells is important in determining whether increasing endogenous production through genetic engineering can provide an alternative to media supplementation. In my thesis, I will describe the development of a droplet microfluidic platform for culturing single primary muscle cells in droplets. My platform provides an enhanced growth environment where single cells have improved growth compared to traditional culture conditions. The platform can also be used to analyze the effects of genetic engineering by culturing single cells in different growth factor supplemented medias to determine how it effects their growth. Finally, I also show how endogenous growth factor production in mammalian cells can lead to finding alternatives for growth factor media supplementations.