Last checked at 23 Nov 2022 07:00
23 November 2022
BSF Enterprise PLC
("BSF" or the "Company")
3D Bio-Tissues enters partnership with leading cell growth company
BSF (LSE:BSFA), an investment company focused on unlocking the next generation of biotech solutions and the development of lab-grown tissues, is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary, 3D Bio-Tissues Ltd (3DBT), is to partner with the growth factor company Qkine to help accelerate the creation of affordable cultivated meat.
Together, 3DBT and Qkine will work to optimise the effectiveness of animal-free cultures to reduce the dependence on other protein compounds, increase yields, and lower overall costs. This is expected to pave the way for advances in cellular agriculture in the UK and world-wide.
The collaboration will see 3DBT combine City-mix™, its animal free media supplement for culturing muscle and fat cells, with Qkine's growth enabling protein engineering technology. Qkine's technology aids the growth of stem cell culture protocols, while 3DBT's innovative macromolecular crowding technology enhances the speed of development of protein components in culture media. Together these can help reduce the production time and costs for growing cultivated meat, making it more accessible and affordable to a growing mass production market.
The announcement comes just days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lab-grown meat for consumption for the first time, in relation to Upside Foods cultivated chicken. In November 2022, 3DBT also announced that it had successfully produced three small prototype fillets of cultivated meat. 3DBT now plans to unveil further larger scale prototypes and the UK's first 100% lab-grown fillet in the coming months.
Dr. Catherine Elton, CEO of Qkine commented: "We are delighted to be working with the innovative 3D Bio-Tissues team. Qkine is committed to establishing a UK-based supply chain for the cellular agriculture industry and contributing to building a more sustainable global future food system."
Che Connon, Chief Executive of 3D-Bio Tissues, said: "We look forward to partnering with Qkine, which has long been at the forefront of developing high-quality protein growth factors for research applications. Our mission is to accelerate the creation of affordable cultivated meat and we strongly believe combining 3DBT's unique food-grade City-mix™ supplements with Qkine's world-leading products can provide great strides toward reaching this goal, putting us on the path to a sustainable cultivated meat industry."
For further enquiries, please visit www.bsfenterprise.com or contact:
BSF Enterprise PLC |
Via SEC Newgate below |
Geoff Baker - Non-Executive Director Che Connon - Executive Director |
|
Shard Capital (Broker) | |
Damon Heath | 0203 971 7000 |
SEC Newgate (Financial Communications) | |
Bob Huxford Elisabeth Cowell George Esmond | 020 3757 6882 BSF@secnewgate.co.uk |
ISIN of the Ordinary Shares is GB00BHNBDQ51
SEDOL Code is BHNBDQ5.
Notes to Editors
BSF Enterprise PLC (BSF) is focused on unlocking the next generation of biotechnological solutions - using cell-based tissue engineering to help generate cultured meat, lab-grown leather, as well as human corneas, collagen growth and skin substitutes, as part of a radical transformation to deliver sustainable solutions across a variety of sectors.
It owns 100% of 3D Bio Tissues Ltd (3DBT), a tissue engineering with patent-protected IP that is already producing human corneas to help restore vision to millions of people. Building on this success, it aims to produce the UK's first high quality lab-grown meat from its laboratory in Newcastle the next 12 months, transforming the meat-production industry towards an ethical and sustainable practice.
BSF aims to deliver growth to shareholders through the continued commercialisation of 3DBT's IP, which has multiple applications, as well as through M&A. It aims to acquire a suite of technologies that underpins the development of tissue templating for corneas, meat and leather, and license out the IP to manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors to help manufacture the products at scale.
About Qkine
Qkine manufactures high-purity, animal-free growth factors, cytokines and other complex proteins. Based in Cambridge, UK, Qkine combines proprietary production processes with protein engineering technology to tackle fundamental biological and scalability challenges for the fast-growing stem cell, organoid, regenerative medicine, and cultured meat sectors. Contact the Qkine team at proteins@qkine.com for more information.