Every cell in a bioreactor is living in a changing world: sometimes floating freely, sometimes attached to a scaffold, sometimes starved or crowded. Most current cultivated meat processes try to control these conditions from the outside. This patent points to another path: teaching the cells themselves to sense where they are and adjust their behaviour on their own.
Cells that read their surroundings and rewrite their fate
The patent describes synthetic nucleic acid circuits that act like tiny input-output units inside the cell. These “conditional” promoters turn specific genes on or off only when they sense particular cellular or environmental states, such as suspension growth, adhesion to a scaffold, high cell density, or changing metabolite levels (like lactate or ammonia) (WO2025196762A1).
In practice, this means you can program cells to proliferate efficiently while they are in suspension, then slow down and differentiate once they attach to a scaffold to form structured tissue. The inventors define DNA motifs that are repeated in the promoter, so that when a cell switches from suspension to adherent conditions, the promoter flips what it drives: for example, more growth factor production in suspension, more differentiation factors when attached. You can picture it as a programmable light switch embedded in the genome, wired directly to the local environment.
A synthetic biology control layer for cultivated meat
MeatoLogic focuses on synthetic biology platforms for animal cell based meat, building on their SmartCell concept for programmable cell behaviour. This invention extends that strategy by creating a generic control layer that can, in principle, be adapted to different species and cell types.
Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd appears as co-applicant, reflecting how academic synthetic biology work around cell state specific promoters is now being translated into industrial tools for more controllable, efficient and scalable cultivated meat production.
Congratulations to the inventors, Nir Shani and Lior Nissim, for their contribution to the field. Interested in their high-performing cells? Contact MeatoLogic at: [email protected]
Lab Grown Technologies highlights meaningful innovations shaping the future of cellular agriculture and tissue engineering.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/lab-grown-technologies/).
About the author — Nidhi Mote, PhD
This article is authored by biomedical scientist Nidhi Mote, PhD, whose work spans bioengineering, mechanobiology, and cell biology. She completed her PhD at the Max Planck Institute and is excited to connect with others in cellular agriculture, synthetic biology, tissue engineering, and advanced in vitro systems.
This post is based on publicly available information. Lab Grown Technologies is not affiliated with the inventors or organizations mentioned.