Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Co-culture system for sustainable cultured meat production

Researchers use photosynthetic microorganisms to create a self-purifying, nutrient-circulating system for eco-friendly cultured meat production

Waseda University

A novel co-culture system for cultured meat production — image:
Researchers have developed a system where liver cells and photosynthetic microorganisms can be grown together to create a low-cost, environmentally friendly medium to grow muscle cells without the use of animal serum.
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Credit: Dr. Tatsuya Shimizu from Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Japan

There is a pressing need for environmentally friendly meat production technologies to tackle the increasing global food demand. Cultured meat production is one such technology that is attracting a lot of attention as an alternative to conventional meat production. First developed in 2012, cultured meat is simply meat that is produced by growing or culturing muscle cells from animals in a laboratory.

Typically, cultured meat production requires serum (or the liquid part of the blood) from animals, which is essential for the growth of muscle cells in the culture medium since serum includes abundant proteins that promote muscle cell growth. The use of animal serum poses significant challenges due to multiple reasons such as high costs, risk of contamination, and ethical concerns. Hence, there is a need for culture methods that allow muscle cells to grow without the use of serum.

Now, a research team led by Professor Tatsuya Shimizu from Tokyo Women’s Medical University, along with Ph.D. student Shanga Chu and Professor Toru Asahi from Waseda University, Professor Yuji Haraguchi from Tokyo Women's Medical University, and Professor Tomohisa Hasunuma from Kobe University, have developed a new system for culturing muscle cells without serum by using photosynthetic microorganisms. Their findings were published in Scientific Reports on August 23, 2024.

Normally, animal serum provides proteins called growth factors that are essential for the growth of muscle cells. However, rat liver cells are also known to secrete these growth factors. The researchers discovered that the medium remaining after culturing these liver cells (or the supernatant) contains growth factors, and can support muscle cell growth without the use of serum. “Although more growth factor-secreting cells and longer cultivation produce larger amount of growth factors, the downside is that the cells also produce waste products like lactate and ammonia into the medium at the same time, which eventually hinders muscle cell growth,” explains Shimizu.

Hence, waste removal is crucial to improve the performance of this culture supernatant as an alternative to animal serum. To resolve this, the researchers had developed L-lactate assimilating cyanobacteria (photosynthetic microorganisms) with lactate to pyruvate converting genes, which were capable of taking in harmful waste metabolites, such as lactate and ammonia and converting them into nutrients for animal cells (rat liver cells and muscle cells), such as pyruvate and amino acids.

In this study, the research group proposed a new system in which the growth-factor secreting rat liver cells would be co-cultured or cultured together with the modified cyanobacteria, and the supernatant from this co-culture could then be used to promote muscle cell growth without serum. They found that co-culturing cyanobacteria with the rat liver cells resulted in a 30% reduction of lactate and over 90% reduction of ammonia. Additionally, the nutrients produced by the cyanobacteria were able to reduce the nutrient depletion by rat liver cells, resulting in an abundance of nutrients like glucose and pyruvate in the co-culture supernatant compared to the supernatant collected from where rat liver cells were grown alone.

When this co-culture supernatant was used to cultivate muscle cells, they found that the growth rate of muscle cells was three times higher than the growth seen when only rat liver cells were used. This demonstrates that co-culturing cyanobacteria significantly enhances the performance of the culture supernatant as a serum alternative and optimizes cell culture through waste upcycling.

“Our study provides a novel low cost, sustainable cell culture system with broad applicability in various fields involving cellular agriculture, such as cultured meat production, fermentation, bio-pharmaceutical production, and regenerative medicine. Further, as a technology for producing meat without killing animals, culturing animal cells with photosynthetic microorganisms could help address not only future food security challenges, but also ethical concerns and issues related to climate change,” concludes Shimizu.

***

Reference

Authors: Shanga Chu1,2, Yuji Haraguchi2, Toru Asahi1,3,4, Yuichi Kato5,6, Akihiko Kondo5,6,7, Tomohisa Hasunuma5,6,7 & Tatsuya Shimizu2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-70377-8

Affiliations:

1Department of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University

2Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women’s Medical University

3Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience, Waseda University

4Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

5Engineering Biology Research Center, Kobe University

6Graduate School of Science, Technology and Innovation, Kobe University

7Research Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN

About Waseda University

Located in the heart of Tokyo, Waseda University is a leading private research university that has long been dedicated to academic excellence, innovative research, and civic engagement at both the local and global levels since 1882. The University has produced many changemakers in its history, including nine prime ministers and many leaders in business, science and technology, literature, sports, and film. Waseda has strong collaborations with overseas research institutions and is committed to advancing cutting-edge research and developing leaders who can contribute to the resolution of complex, global social issues. The University has set a target of achieving a zero-carbon campus by 2032, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
To learn more about Waseda University, visit https://www.waseda.jp/top/en

About Ms. Shanga Chu from Waseda University

Ms. Shanga Chu is currently a Ph.D. student at the School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University. She graduated from the Department of Applied Science and Engineering at the School of Engineering, Hokkaido University in March 2022. Her research work includes spontaneous nutrient cycling culture system by co-culturing microalgae and animal cells.

Funding information

This work was supported by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, Cross-ministerial Moonshot Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research and Development Program, “Technologies for Smart Bio-industry and Agriculture” (funding agency: Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution).

Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-70377-8

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

A serum‑free culture medium production system by co‑culture combining growth factor‑secreting cells and L-lactate‑assimilating cyanobacteria for sustainable cultured meat pro

Arctic whales research collaboration is signed by Heriot-Watt University and HX Expeditions (Hurtigruten Expeditions)

Project will study where and how often whales encounter vessels in the high Arctic

Heriot-Watt University

Merchant Ship Fram, an HX passenger ship, at Eqip Sermia, a glacier in Greenland — image:
MS Fram (Merchant Ship Fram), an HX passenger ship, at Eqip Sermia, a glacier in Greenland.
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Credit: Yuri Choufour

Pioneering research to protect and conserve Arctic whale populations is to begin under a new five-year collaboration between Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland and HX Expeditions (Hurtigruten Expeditions), a world leader in travel exploration.

The partners have signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), beginning in 2024, to research challenges facing marine life in the high Arctic – the most northern part of the Arctic region and one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems.

The agreement will see Heriot-Watt University and HX work together on the Whales & Arctic Vessels Project (WAVE), a collaboration driven by the urgent need to better understand how often and where whales are encountering vessels in the high Arctic, and how whales are responding to these interactions – an area of research that remains largely unexplored.

“We have very little understanding about how frequently Arctic whales are encountering vessels in the high Arctic and how they may be impacted by these interactions,” explained project lead Dr Lauren McWhinnie, an Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society.

“We know in other areas of the world that whales can be affected by vessels in a variety of ways, from exposure to underwater noise to being physically stuck or disturbed. As vessel activity increases in the Arctic, it's important that we work with industry, policy makers and communities to ensure that the maritime sector is operating in a responsible and sustainable manner and is not placing any further pressure on these animals whose habitat is significantly changing due to climate change.”

Heriot-Watt University is the first UK university to partner with HX in a project of this scale. The collaboration will see the two organisations jointly publish findings, delivering impact reports and scientific results that will further the understanding of the pressures on Arctic whale populations and contribute to global conservation efforts.

The partnership will harness HX’s extensive expedition network and will benefit vastly from the company’s ability to engage both guest passengers and the wider public in this important environmental research. Heriot-Watt’s researchers will benefit from access to multiple vessels within the fleet, enabling scientists to conduct multi-year data collection in areas rarely surveyed. Passengers aboard HX ships on planned commercial voyages will also have the opportunity to participate in citizen science programmes, both contributing valuable data and allowing them to see how their contributions can make a difference.

Dr Verena Meraldi, Chief Scientist for HX, said the research would help improve our understanding of the pressures on Arctic whales and enrich the knowledge and experience HX can provide to its guests.

“As Chief Scientist for HX, I have the honour of working alongside various scientists across different disciplines to get a deeper understanding of the processes governing our planet, and the impact we (as humans) are having on it,” Dr Meraldi said. “Conveying this to our guests and getting them involved in projects such as WAVE is exactly the kind of project we look to support. We hope by supporting this project we will support further knowledge and understanding of Arctic whales, and also enrich the journeys and mindset of our guests. This MoU represents a vital collaboration between academia and industry, aiming to advance the scientific understanding of Arctic ecosystems, while making a tangible contribution to whale conservation in the region.”

The collaboration aims to promote global awareness and support the conservation of Arctic whale species, while gathering critical data to inform and support evidence-based management strategies. WAVE also seeks to foster academic growth in marine sciences by supporting and developing the next generation of researchers.

With increasing vessel activity being documented in the Arctic, it is crucial for academia to work alongside industry partners, policymakers, and local communities to ensure that both future and current use of this marine space takes place in a responsible and sustainable manner, the scientists say. This is particularly important given the significant changes to the habitat of Arctic whales, caused by climate driven sea ice reductions, and the need to avoid adding further pressures on these vulnerable species.

Dr McWhinnie said: “When we are working to conserve whales, we are so often on the back foot – reacting to deal with a problem that is already having a documented impact. What’s incredibly exciting about this research is that we are being more proactive, trying to make sure an impact doesn’t occur, and learning from lessons we’ve seen arise elsewhere. As a researcher this is a truly fantastic opportunity to bring about a positive change, and I’m incredibly excited to work with our partners, HX Hurtigruten Expeditions, to ensure that future vessels visiting the Arctic will have a minimal impact on these incredible animals.””

An orca whale in the Denmark Strait, between Greenland and Iceland in the Arctic Ocean.

Beluga whales, which are known for their white colour, in the Bellot Strait in Nunavut, Canada

Credit

Yuri Choufour

Record levels of heat-related deaths in 2023 due to climate crisis, report finds

Anna Bawden

Health and social affairs correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 29 October 2024

Impact of a drought in Spain in March 2023. Higher temperatures mean 151m more people faced moderate or severe food insecurity that year.Photograph: Paola de Grenet/The Guardian

Heat-related deaths, food insecurity and the spread of infectious diseases caused by the climate crisis have reached record levels, according to a landmark report.

The Lancet Countdown’s ninth report on health and the climate breakdown reveals that people across the world face unprecedented threats to their health from the rapidly changing climate.

“This year’s stocktake of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet,” warned Dr Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown at University College London.

“Once again, last year broke climate change records with extreme heatwaves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world. No individual or economy on the planet is immune [to] the health threats of climate change.

“The relentless expansion of fossil fuels and record-breaking greenhouse gas emissions compounds these dangerous health impacts, and is threatening to reverse the limited progress made so far and put a healthy future further out of reach.”

The report finds that in 2023, extreme drought lasting at least one month affected 48% of the global land area, while people had to cope with an unprecedented 50 more days of health-threatening temperatures than would have been expected without the climate crisis. As a result, 151 million more people faced moderate or severe food insecurity, risking malnutrition and other harm to their health.

Heat related deaths among the over-65s rocketed by 167% in 2023, compared with the 1990s. Without the climate crisis, an ageing global population means such deaths would have increased, but only by 65%. High temperatures also led to a record 6% more hours of lost sleep in 2023 than the 1986–2005 average. Poor sleep has a profound negative effect on physical and mental health.

Hotter and drier weather saw greater numbers of sand and dust storms, which contributed to a 31% increase in the number of people exposed to dangerously high particulate matter concentrations, while life-threatening diseases such as dengue, malaria and West Nile virus continue to spread into new areas as a result of higher temperatures.

But despite this, “governments and companies continue to invest in fossil fuels, resulting in all-time high greenhouse gas emissions and staggering tree loss, reducing the survival chances of people all around the globe”, the authors found.

In 2023, global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions reached an all-time high, 1.1% above 2022, and the proportion of fossil fuels in the global energy system increased for the first time in a decade during 2021, reaching 80.3% of all energy.

Responding to the findings, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said: “The climate crisis is a health crisis. As the planet heats up, the frequency and intensity of climate-related disasters increase, leaving no region untouched.”

The report makes it clear, he added, that “climate change is not a distant threat, but an immediate risk to health”.

António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said: “Record-high emissions are posing record-breaking threats to our health. We must cure the sickness of climate inaction – by slashing emissions, protecting people from climate extremes, and ending our fossil fuel addiction – to create a fairer, safer and healthier future for all.”

Temperate countries are also seeing the effects of the climate crisis. In 2013-2022, the UK’s overall mean increase in heat-related deaths was estimated at nine deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while there were 8.5 million potential working hours lost due to heat exposure in 2023.

Dr Lea Berrang Ford, head of the Centre for Climate and Health Security at the UK Health Security Agency, which published its own report on the health impacts of global heating on the UK, said: “Climate change is not solely a future health threat. Health impacts are already being felt domestically and globally, and these risks will accelerate.

“There are significant opportunities for win-win solutions that can combat climate change and improve health. The health decisions we make today will determine the severity and extent of climate impacts inherited by today’s youth and their children.”

Dr Josh Foster, lecturer in human environmental physiology at King’s College London, said the report’s “alarming” trends would “result in more frequent mass mortality events in older people as the devastating impacts of climate change are realised”.

Climate change driving 'record threats to health': report

Daniel Lawler
Tue 29 October 2024

The world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters (Sylvie HUSSON) (Sylvie HUSSON/AFP/AFP)

Climate change poses a growing threat to human health in a variety of record-breaking ways, a major report said Wednesday, the experts warning that "wasted time has been paid in lives".

The new report was released as heatwaves, fires, hurricanes, droughts and floods have lashed the world during what is expected to surpass 2023 to become the hottest year on record.

It also comes just weeks before the United Nations COP29 talks are held in Azerbaijan -- and days before a US election that could see climate change sceptic Donald Trump return to the White House.

The eighth Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, developed by 122 experts including from UN agencies such as the World Health Organization, painted a dire picture of death and delay.

Out of 15 indicators that the experts have been tracking over the last eight years, 10 have "reached concerning new records," the report said.

These included the increasing extreme weather events, elderly deaths from heat, spread of infectious diseases, and people going without food as droughts and floods hit crops.

Lancet Countdown executive director Marina Romanello told AFP the report showed there are "record threats to the health and survival of people in every country, to levels we have never seen before".

- 'Fuelling the fire' -

The number of over-65s who died from heat has risen by 167 percent since the 1990s, the report said.

Rising temperatures have also increased the area where mosquitoes roam, taking deadly diseases with them.

Last year saw a new record of over five million cases of dengue worldwide, the report noted.

Around five percent of the world's tree cover was destroyed between 2016 and 2022, reducing Earth's capacity to capture the carbon dioxide humans are emitting.

It also tracked how oil and gas companies -- as well as some governments and banks -- were "fuelling the fire" of climate change.

Despite decades of warnings, global emissions of the main greenhouse gases rose again last year, the World Meteorological Organization said earlier this week.

Large oil and gas companies, which have been posting record profits, have increased fossil fuel production since last year, the report said.

Many countries also handed out fresh subsidies to fossil fuels to counteract soaring oil and gas prices after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $1.4 trillion in 2022, which is "vastly more than any source of commitments to enable a transition to a healthier future," Romanello said.

- 'No more time to waste' -

But there were also "some very encouraging signs of progress," she added.

For example, deaths from fossil fuel-related air pollution fell by nearly seven percent to 2.10 million from 2016 to 2021, mainly due to efforts to reduce pollution from burning coal, the report said.

The share of clean renewables used to generate electricity nearly doubled over the same period to 10.5 percent, it added.

And there are signs that climate negotiations are paying more attention to health, Romanello said, pointing to the COP talks and national climate plans to be submitted early next year.

"If action is not taken today, the future will be very dangerous," she warned.

"There is really no more time to waste -- I know we have been saying this for many years -- but what we are seeing is that the wasted time has been paid in lives."

For people at home, Romanello advised a climate-friendly diet, travelling without burning dirty energy, ditching banks that invest in fossil fuels and voting for politicians promising greater action on global warming.

dl-jdy/giv

Climate crisis caused half of 2022 European heat deaths, study finds
Maryam Kara
Tue 29 October 2024

(AFP/Getty Images)

More than half of the 68,000 heat-related deaths during the scorching European summer in 2022 were caused by climate change, a study has found.

Researchers from Barcelona Institute for Global Health revealed human-induced climate change, brought on by the burning of fossil fuels and destruction of nature, may have resulted in 38,000 more deaths in 2022.

It was the year that saw the hottest summer on record and a death toll about 10 times greater than the number of homicides in Europe during the whole year.

Warm weather had killed more women than men, more southern Europeans than northern Europeans, and more individuals over the age of 64 in comparison to those who were younger.

While scientists have previously established a link between carbon pollution and hotter heatwaves, they were unaware of how much carbon pollution had driven up the death toll.

It has now been revealed the generally higher vulnerability of these groups was exacerbated by anthropogenic warming, and the clogging of the atmosphere by greenhouse pollutants.

To estimate how many more people die as a result of hot weather, an existing heat and health data model for 35 European countries was examined alongside temperatures for a hypothetical world in which humans had not heated the planet.

Researchers concluded climate change was behind 22,501 heat deaths in women and 14,026 heat deaths in men, but also highlighted human-induced climate change has exacerbated the heat-related mortality during other exceptionally hot summers.

During 2015–2021, between 44 per cent and 54 per cent of summer heat-related mortality can be attributed to anthropogenic warming.

The study’s lead authors have warned that without mitigation action to combat heat-related deaths, the mortality rate is also “likely to speed up” in the near future.

They said: “Our study urgently calls for national governments and agencies in Europe to increase the ambition and effectiveness of heat surveillance and prevention measures, new adaptation strategies, and global mitigation efforts.”

More than half of European heat-related deaths in summer 2022 attributed to anthropogenic warming

The results of the study show a higher number of heat-related deaths attributed to climate change among women and people aged 80 and over

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

The unprecedented temperatures in the summer of 2022 caused more than 68,000 deaths on the continent, according to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the 'la Caixa' Foundation. A new study has now found that more than half - 56% - of the heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022 were related to human-induced climate change. According to the research, 38,154 of the 68,593 heat-related deaths in the summer of 2022 would not have occurred without anthropogenic warming.

The starting point was previous research in which, using temperature and mortality records from 35 European countries, epidemiological models were fitted to estimate heat-related mortality in the summer 2022. Using a dataset of global mean surface temperature anomalies between 1880 and 2022, they estimated the increase in temperatures due to anthropogenic warming for every region. They then subtracted those increases from the recorded temperatures to obtain an estimate of what temperatures would have been in the absence of anthropogenic warming. Finally, using the model developed in the first study, they estimated mortality for a hypothetical scenario where those temperatures would have occurred.

The results, published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, showed that the number of heat-related deaths per million inhabitants attributed to anthropogenic warming was twice as high in the Southern regions compared to the rest of Europe.

In line with previous studies, the team found a higher number of heat-related deaths attributed to climate change among women (22,501 out of 37,983 deaths) and people aged 80 years or more (23,881 out of 38,978 deaths) as opposed to men (14,026 out of 25,385 deaths) and people aged 64 years or less (2,702 out of 5,565 deaths).

“This study sheds light on the extent to which global warming impacts public health. While we observe an increase of heat-related mortality across nearly all the countries analysed, not everyone is affected equally, with women and the elderly particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of rising temperatures,” says Thessa Beck, ISGlobal researcher, and the study's first author.

Urgent need for ambitious adaptation and mitigation measures

Temperatures in Europe are rising twice as fast as the global average, exacerbating health impacts. But climate change has not only exacerbated heat-related mortality in exceptionally hot summers as in 2022. According to the study's findings, between 44% and 54% of heat-related summer mortality between 2015 and 2021 can be attributed to global warming. In absolute terms, this corresponds to an annual burden of between 19,000 and 28,000 deaths. By comparison, the figures for 2022 show an alarming 40% increase in heat-related mortality and a two-thirds increase in mortality attributed to anthropogenic warming.

“Our study urgently calls on governments and national authorities in Europe to increase the ambition and effectiveness of surveillance and prevention measures, new adaptation strategies, and global mitigation efforts. Without strong action, record temperatures and heat-related mortality will continue to rise in the coming years,” says Joan Ballester Claramunt, Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant EARLY-ADAPT (https://www.early-adapt.eu/).

>>Check the data.

Reference

Beck TM, Schumacher DL, Achebak H, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Seneviratne SI, Ballester J. Mortality burden attributed to anthropogenic warming during Europe’s 2022 record-breaking summer. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. Oct. 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41612-024-00783-2