Meet the Team Scaling Up Cell-Cultivated Products

Cell-cultivated products face a critical scale-up challenge. Extracellular is here to help.

Founded by Kiren Baines and Will Milligan, they're using their decades of combined experience in biopharmaceutical process and product development to develop the food, cosmetics, and materials of the future.

Extracellular is a team of 11 scientists and engineers with experience developing complex biologics and cell-cultivated products. The team, led by Kiren, has experience working with cells from more than a dozen species, and running bioreactor processes from 200mL to 200L. Kiren’s expertise in cell biology gives her a unique insight to the challenges facing the industry:

"Understanding and characterising cells and their behaviour, for example in response to certain growth factors, helps us create a pool of knowledge we can reliably draw from, translating that into reduced costs and scaled-back timelines for processes and ultimately making the technology more commercially viable."

Sustainability and quality are central to developing the next generation of sustainable products. Taryn Fletcher, Extracellular's Sustainability and Lab Manager, is responsible for facilitiating research and minimising the company’s impact on the planet. "One of the biggest challenges facing science is what to do with the single use consumables that typically fill every lab up and down the country? For example, we have introduced a plastics and glove recycling program which has significantly reduced waste to incineration or landfill.”

Scaling production requires the right infrastructure, which is why Jamie Thompson joined Extracellular from Unilever to design advanced facilities and processes. Jamie shares, “At Extracellular, we’re building the capability to become the UK’s largest manufacturer of cell-cultivated products. Our Bristol site is expanding to include bioreactors of 1,000L capacity and beyond, bridging the gap between research and full-scale manufacturing. I’m excited to contribute to an industry with the power to create meaningful, positive global change.”

Scale-up is the next big hurdle for cell-cultivated products, and Extracellular plans to grow to support the sector. With his experience in biotech contract manufacturing, Extracellular CEO Will Milligan understands the challenges facing start-ups.

"Start-ups know they need to scale, but investors don't like companies spending money on capex, especially before the products have been developed more fully. It’s a valley of death for most companies. Extracellular is building the scale-up capabilities to help these cell-cultivated product companies, and we think we can help de-risk the entire sector. Our aim is to help them get to market years faster and millions of dollars cheaper by partnering with us."