Cultivated A bioreactor outfitted with colored lights. It’s the same process that makes houseplants grow toward a sunny window. between machines and cells. The ma-chine can directly communicate with the cells,” Kent says. “Besides media costs, the other two main cost factors in cultivated meat are capex and labor costs,” Kent says. “Prolific’s systems can help address all three problems.” Increasing the productivity of bio-reactors effectively lowers capex costs over time, and the software, which creates driverless bioreactors, allows for increased automation to reduce labor costs. the company to produce thicker whole cuts in a streamlined way without the need for scaffolding or other structural components. “We can make structured meat prod-ucts by hitting some cells with one color and others with another color to create cell differentiation,“ he says. “Imagine you have a bed of stem cells, then you hit some with red light to make muscle, some with blue light to make fat and some with green light to make bone. You can actually have all of those different tissues developing in the same place at the same time.” This technology also holds promise for making meat in space. “It’s going to be completely eco-nomically unviable to ship growth factors from Earth to Mars every time you want to make meat, but it’s easy to have some solar panels to make electricity to power LEDs in space. You’re going to have to do that for electricity anyway,” Kent notes. “The way that I would summarize it is that Prolific is the best option on Earth, but the only option on Mars and beyond.” For the moment, Prolific Machines is focused on commercializing ther-apeutic proteins as they find their financial footing, but bringing their technology to the cultivated meat in-dustry is in their sights within the next five to 10 years. “Cultured meat is an inevitability,” Kent asserts. “The demand for meat is projected to double between now and 2050, and if you look at the current amount of resources that meat produc-tion takes, the math does not add up. But with Prolific’s technology, cultured meat will be economically viable and cheaper than factory farming.” Alt-Meat August 2025 THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT Prolific Machines has already suc-cessfully produced Wagyu beef using its light-based system, and it has big plans for the future. For instance, Kent notes that light offers spatial control that will allow 21
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