2026 Program Coming Soon
2025 Program
Sunday, November 9th
17:00 – 18:00 Registration (registration desk will be open during all conference days)
18:00 – 18:10 Welcome
18:10 – 18:40 Keynote lecture: Prof. Luc J.C. van Loon
You are what you eat
Chair: Mark Post
18:45 – 20:00 Opening Reception sponsored by Fetherstonhaugh Foundation @ MECC (included in registration)
Monday, November 10th
09:00 – 10:30 Session 1 : Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
Chair: Nynke van den Akker
09:00 – 09:30 Keynote: Frederico Ferreira
Prospective on structure and texture of cultivated meat and seafood: a tissue engineering approach.
09:30 – 10:30 Oral presentations selected from abstracts:
09:30 – 09:45 Rachel Bennie
Material Matters: How Plant Proteins Shape Satellite Cell Growth in Cultivated Meat
09:45 – 10:00 Alex Hartley
Mechanical optimization of edible microcarriers for improved cell differentiation and scale-up
10:00 – 10:15 Anna Leikeim
Superfood-infused hydrogels for bioprinting cultured meat
10:15 – 10:30 Young-Seung Lee
Optimization of Porous Scaffolds for Muscle Cell Development Using Various Fabrication Methods
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break – sponsored by Bell Food Group –
11:00 – 12:30 Session 2: Cell Biology and Cell Line Development
Chair: Frea Mehta
11:00 – 11:30 Keynote lecture: Joshua Flack
Transcriptomic insights for satellite cell manipulation and engineering
11:30 – 11:45 Adar Kfir
Partial reprogramming of bovine satellite cells
11:45 – 12:00 Sarah Ho
Fat without farms: Adipogenesis of livestock species for cultivated meat.
12:00 – 12:15 Claire Bomkamp
Developing continuous cell lines for cultivated seafood: What do we know and why is it so hard?
12:15 – 12:30 Sharon Schlesinger
Short Heat Stress Boosts Fat Formation in MSCs: Toward Affordable Cultured Meat
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch – sponsored by East-Mab Bio –
13:30 – 14:00 Rapid-Fire Poster Pitches: A
Chair: Anita Broellochs
14:00 – 15:30 Session 3: Enabling Technologies
Chair: Frea Mehta
14:00 – 14:30 Keynote: Fabiana Calandra
Synthetic Biology: Harnessing RNA for precision post-transcriptional regulation
14:30 – 14:45 Shijie Ding
Serum-free Long-term Expansion and Functional Maintenance of Satellite Cells via Targeted Genomic Engineering
14:45 – 15:00 Reza Ovissipour
Integrated Strategies for Lamb Cell Line Development, Serum-Free Media Optimization, and Culture Media Recycling
15:00 – 15:15 Hooman Hefzi
Lessons from biopharma: Reimagining mammalian cell metabolism
15:15 – 15:30 Ilana Vainshtein
Engineering Immortalized bMSCs with Inducible MyoD for Efficient Muscle Tissue Generation in Cultivated Meat
15:30 – 17:00 Coffee and Poster Session A – sponsored by ARRALYZE, LPKF Laser and Electronics –
17:00 – 17:30 Panel Discussion: Uniting Around Shared Goals
Moderated by: Karin Verzijden, Axon Lawyers
Alessandro Bertero, University of Torino
Dr Swati Arya, UK Food Standards Agency
Elliot Swartz, PhD, The Good Food Institute
17:30– 18:00 Company Pitches
Chair: Alex Shirazi
(3 min)
Heidi Coia, Nexture Bio
Yuki Hanyu, Integriculture
Dr. Robin Krüger, Arralyze
Dr. Vishal Warke, HiMedia Laboratories
Zhongyuan Wu, Joes Future Food
Vincent Krudde, Nutreco
Vicky Tang, East-Mab Bio
Maxence Vieux-Rochas, SEED Biosciences
18:00 – 18:15 Closing Remarks
19:30 – Conference Dinner
Sint Janskerk Maastricht (3.2km from MECC) – Google Maps
Tuesday, November 11th
09:00 – 10:30 Session 4: Media Development
Chair: Mark Post
09:00 – 09:30 Keynote: Soraya Padilla
Data-Driven Approaches to Accelerate Media Design for Cell-Based Applications
09:30 – 09:45 JiaQi Mi
Sustainable Food-Grade Serum-Reducing Biomaterial: Plant Protein Hydrolysates for Scalable Cultivated Meat Manufacturing
09:45 – 10:00 Elliot Swartz, PhD
Analysis of the costs, production volumes, and supply chain for amino acids used in cultivated meat manufacturing
10:00 – 10:15 Nanette Boyle
A Systems Biology Approach to Media Formulation for Cultivated Pork Cell Lines
10:15 – 10:30 Jelle Hoek
Breaking the basal medium: microbial extracts as a shortcut to cheaper cultivated meat
10:30 – 11:00 Rapid-Fire Poster Pitches: B
Chair: Nynke van den Akker
11:00 – 12:30 Coffee and Poster Session B – sponsored by Nutreco –
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch – sponsored by Joes Future Food –
13:30 – 13:45 Group Photo
13:45 – 15:15 Session 5: Bioprocessing and Scale-Up Technologies
Chair: Rocío Valbuena
13:45 – 14:15 Keynote: Vítor Espírito Santo
Building the Future of Meat: Scaling Cultivation Through Bioreactor Innovation
14:15 – 14:30 Jorge H. Santoyo-Garcia
Expansion of Porcine iPSC in a 5-Litre Stirred Tank Bioreactor using Fed-Batch Cultivation and Food-Safe Small Molecule Replacements
14:30 – 14:45 Robin Maatz
Structured Cultivated Meat via 3D Bio-Screen Printing: Process Design, Scale-Up, and Bioprocess Integration
14:45 – 15:00 Jef Pinxteren
Continuous Perfusion and Repeated Fed-Batch of Porcine Induced Pluripotent Cells to Develop a Stable and Consistent Process
15:00 – 15:15 Kensei Okada
Plasma-Alginate Gel Fiber Toward Slaughter-Free Cultured Meat Fabrication
15:15 – 15:45 Coffee Break
15:45 – 17:00 Session 6: Environmental and Societal Impacts
Chair: Karin Verzijden
15:45 – 16:15 Keynote: Nicole Tichenor Blackstone
Environmental and social implications of cultivated meat: where are we, and where must we go from here?
16:15 – 16:30 Sean Cash
Vegan and Vegetarian Identity and Willingness to Try or Recommend Various Cultivated Animal Foods
16:30 – 16:45 Alessandro Monaco
Global Developments in the Regulation of Cultivated Meat: A Comparative Study of the EU, Singapore, US and Australia and New Zealand
16:45 – 17:00 Hanna Tuomisto
Guidelines for environmental life cycle assessment of cultivated meat
17:00 – 17:30 Panel Discussion: Learning from Life Cycle Assessments
Moderated by: Mark Post, Mosa Meat
Pelle Sinke, CE Delft
Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, Tufts Univeristy
Hanna Tuomisto, University of Helsinki &
Natural Resources Institute Finland
17:30 – 17:45 Closing Remarks with Mark Post