Class-specific growth factors for cultured seafood?

In a fascinating session organized by The Good Food Institute APAC, I had the opportunity to engage with researchers in the cultured seafood sector 🐠🔬, where we dived into the challenges facing both B2B and B2C companies in this space. A standout challenge, which seems unique to marine species, is the scarcity of species-specific growth factors.

The growth factor landscape is currently dominated by B2B entities focusing on mammals, mainly targeting growth factors of porcine, bovine, and to a lesser extent, avian origin. 🐖🐄🐔 These efforts concentrate on growth factors like EGF, bFGF, IGF, PDGF and transferrin. [The notable absence of cytokines presents another intriguing discussion point, but that's a topic for a future post! 🤔💬]

It's important to highlight that marine animal cells can indeed grow using FBS, suggesting that mammalian-based growth factors could suffice. However, in an industry where cost reduction and yield maximization are critical for commercial viability 💰📈, the need for species- or class-specific growth factors will likely become evident. This need is particularly acute in the context of crustacean cell culture, which generally shows poor responsiveness to mammalian serum. 🦐

This brings me to a question: Are there B2B enterprises actively developing growth factors of fish or crustacean origin? Or is this challenge currently being tackled by companies specializing in cultured fish cells? 🧐 Furthermore, has there been any research comparing the effectiveness of growth factor orthologs, such as FGF2 from bovine versus avian sources, in fish cells?