EIC Coffee Break with ProFuse: scaling cultivated meat cell lines and the reality behind the hype
- ›ProFuse Technology, co‑founded by Guy Nevo Michrowski and Dr Tamar Eigler‑Hirsh, develops muscle cell lines and supplements to speed up cultivated meat production.
- ›An EIC Transition grant and follow‑on funding have supported regulatory testing, equipment purchases, and scale up activities that the company says would otherwise have been much slower.
- ›ProFuse reports a technical milestone: its PF‑B8 cell line can grow in serum‑free conditions, a necessary step to remove animal dependence from cultivated meat processes.
- ›The founders caution that cultivated meat is a capital intensive industry and that broad consumer acceptance, energy footprints and regulatory clarity remain open challenges.
- ›ProFuse is commercialising research tools such as PROFUSE‑S1 supplement and the PROFUSE‑B8 cell line while expanding into drug discovery targeting muscle loss.
ProFuse and the practicalities of making cultivated meat industrially viable
In a recent EIC Coffee Break interview ProFuse Technology co‑founder Guy Nevo Michrowski described how a six year research effort spun out of the Weizmann Institute has translated into commercial products and an EIC Transition project. ProFuse positions itself as a muscle cultivation specialist supplying cell lines and media supplements to accelerate production cycles and raise protein yield. The company says EIC support has been decisive in moving from lab bench experiments toward industrial scale demonstrations and regulatory work.
Founders, origins and stated mission
Guy Nevo Michrowski and Dr Tamar Eigler‑Hirsh co‑founded ProFuse after licensing technology from the Weizmann Institute. Michrowski described a personal motivation as a vegan and former chef seeking a credible meat alternative that matches taste and texture. ProFuse says its mission is to provide cultivated meat producers with tools that make muscle cultivation faster, cheaper, and higher quality in terms of protein content and texture.
Why the EIC Transition grant mattered
ProFuse credits the EIC Transition grant with enabling several costly but essential activities. The firm reports using grant funds to support regulatory testing and to acquire equipment that would otherwise have required contracting external service providers and slowed development. The company also says the award helped bridge the gap between lab proof of concept and pilot or industrial scale demonstrations and supported collaboration with customers to tailor scale up.
| Item | Figure reported by ProFuse | Context and caveats |
| EIC Transition grant | €2.4 million | Company press listings indicate a €2.4 million EIC award to accelerate cultivated meat production. EIC grants usually require milestones and do not fully de‑risk commercial scale up. |
| Regulatory work funded | Around $1 million | Michrowski said ProFuse invested roughly $1 million on regulation related activities with help from the EIC grant. This figure was presented as the company’s regulatory spend and not an independent audit. |
| PROFUSE‑S1 vial price | $150 per vial | Listed on the company site. One vial reportedly treats 1.5 liters of media. This is a commercial research product and not a food ingredient approval. |
Technical milestone and its limitations
ProFuse announced that its flagship PF‑B8 cell line has been adapted to grow in serum‑free media. The company frames this as a key step toward removing animal dependence from cultivated meat processes and enabling reproducible industrial production from a stable cell line.
Market demand, environmental claims and unknowns
The EIC piece quoted broad trends such as a projected rise in meat demand by 2050 and growth forecasts for plant‑based alternatives. Michrowski argued that conventional livestock is inefficient in land and water use and that cultivated meat offers a way to secure protein supply. He also acknowledged gaps in knowledge, notably how much electricity cultivated meat processes will require at commercial scale.
These are legitimate observations but they need qualification. Life cycle assessments for cultivated meat have shown widely different outcomes depending on assumptions about energy sources, production scale, cell yields and downstream processing. Claims that cultivated meat will inevitably be 'extremely efficient' depend on optimising many variables and on access to low‑carbon electricity if environmental benefits are to be realised.
Regulatory and commercial horizon
Regulatory pathways for cultivated meat vary by jurisdiction. A small number of products have gained approval in countries with established novel food pathways. The European Union applies the Novel Food Regulation which requires safety dossiers and often lengthy review. ProFuse said it has invested in regulatory testing. That work is necessary, but it does not guarantee swift approvals or immediate market access. Companies in this sector must plan for multi year regulatory timelines and iterative safety studies.
Advice to entrepreneurs and the industry reality check
Michrowski warned against importing stem cell therapy solutions directly into food production. His advice is to design technologies from the start for food industry economics which typically favour high volume and low margins. He described a wave of 'Generation Two' startups that are building technologies tailored to scale and cost structures of food manufacturing rather than repurposing medical bioprocessing platforms.
Community engagement and talent pipeline
ProFuse has hosted visits by 60 high school students from an agricultural boarding school. The company described this as part of an open approach to collaboration and to broaden perceptions of careers in agriculture and food technology beyond traditional farming. ProFuse framed collaboration and data sharing as priorities given the scale of the challenge ahead.
Beyond cultivated meat: drug discovery pivot
ProFuse is also developing an in vitro muscle modelling platform for drug discovery. The company argues that muscle loss associated with aging, cancer cachexia and widespread GLP‑1 based weight loss therapies is an emerging unmet medical need. ProFuse says its platform can accelerate screening of candidates that preserve or restore muscle mass and that the company has recruited advisors and executives with drug discovery experience to support this trajectory.
What to watch next
Key indicators to follow include independent verification of serum‑free cell line stability at pilot scale, published life cycle analyses using realistic industrial assumptions, regulatory progress under the EU Novel Food framework, and commercial uptake of reagents such as PROFUSE‑S1 by other developers. The timing and price competitiveness of first marketable cultivated meat products will also be a critical signal of the sector’s trajectory.
A measured conclusion
ProFuse illustrates the typical path for deep tech food start ups: academic IP transferred to a small team, grant support to bridge critical gaps, commercial research tools sold to other developers and an eventual push into adjacent markets where platform capabilities have value. Their technical milestones are meaningful but not definitive. The cultivated meat literature is still evolving and high claims for environmental or supply side breakthroughs should be weighed against unresolved questions on energy use, regulatory hurdles and consumer acceptance.
For policymakers and funders the ProFuse case underscores the role of targeted grants in derisking technical and regulatory milestones. For entrepreneurs the lesson is pragmatic. Design for food industry economics and be prepared for prolonged capital intensity. For consumers the takeaway is simple. Taste, price and trustworthy safety assurances will determine adoption far more than aspirational narratives.