Vitro Diagnostics, Mokshagundam Biotechnologies enter contract to develop stem cell-derived food

Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. (OTCBB: VODG), dba Vitro Biopharma, announced that it has entered into a contract with Mokshagundam Biotechnologies, a private research organization established to develop alternative meat sources, to develop cell culture medium for use in exploration of alternative food sources derived from stem cells.

Cell culture media is a complex solution of salts and nutrients designed to support growth of living cells; each type of cell requires specific components within the media to optimize its growth. This project intends to utilize cultured marine invertebrates, nourished by medium only as a source of food for fish initially and possibly domestic animals. The initial target organism has a well-defined stem cell system that results in regeneration of body parts following amputation, and continuous growth of the organism. Vitro is to provide prototype media to support expansion of these marine organisms without requiring additional food sources. Successful development of such a product could lead to commercial production of food sources that rely on cell culture technology utilizing cell culture medium as the primary consumable product in the manufacturing process. This technology may also be expanded to include animal and human food sources using stem cells that give rise to muscle cells, which is the primary ingredient of meat. The manufacture of stem cell-derived meat allows complete control of the meat with regard to chemical content and the elimination of contaminants such as E. coli, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and the cause of "Mad Cow Disease." Additional substances may be added to enhance taste and nutritional value.

“Tools for Stem Cell and Drug Development™”

Dr. Jim Musick, Vitro's CEO, said, "We are pleased to be involved with this ground breaking opportunity to extend stem cell technology to development of alternative food sources. Cellular immortality as reflected in continual stem cell proliferation (self-renewal) has potential to provide limitless cells that when differentiated to muscle, for example, become the primary ingredient of meat. This reflects the basis of alternative food derived from stem cells that is now being developed. We intend to use our expertise in stem cell media development and commercial manufacture to provide appropriate media formulations to support this nascent technology. Our VITROGROW™ Brand of stem cell media has been demonstrated to result in superior performance to competing products in the growth of human adult stem cells and is now utilized in high performance, bioluminescent test kits (Lumenesc-Hu™ and LumiSTEM™) for measuring the quality and potency of mesenchymal and induced-pluripotent stem cells. We anticipate contributing to this exciting new field and plan to further develop cellular immortalization procedures that may be crucial to economic production of stem cell-derived meat."

Kedar Challakere, MD, of Mokshagundam Biotechnologies stated, "The in vitro meat products developed thus far have used fetal bovine serum with which to grow their stem cells. The product currently being developed through our contract with Vitro is a synthetic, animal free medium which is anticipated to replace a living organism, the brine shrimp, from the food chain of aquatic creatures."