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In their Montreal laboratory, two entrepreneurs are aiming for the firmament, or rather the Milky Way: they want to “cultivate” real milk without milking a single cow. This is the only way, they say, to supplant the traditional dairy industry, which warms the climate and exploits animals.
Already, they manage to achieve this feat in the hollow of a jar. Under the microscope, we see a transparent assembly of cells of the mammary gland. In another Petri dish, the same structure has become opaque: it is now full of milk. With the naked eye, we can only discern tiny whitish dots suspended in a liquid.
In the vibrant cultured meat industry, a lot of effort has gone into chicken and beef. “But milk is really new. We are years ahead of researchers who would start today, ”says Jennifer Côté, CEO of Opalia, who has been striving for three years to create the first “cultured milk” in the world.
“We are two vegans. We know that society will not go vegan with existing products [comme le lait de soya]. We must therefore find a way to offer the public what they like, but without causing animal suffering, “explains Lucas House, the scientific director of the company, met by The duty with his colleague in their laboratory housed on the Loyola campus of Concordia University.
“One of the most beautiful moments of my life”
Getting to the tiny whitish dots wasn’t easy. When the two partners launched the project in 2020, on the eve of the pandemic, they had no knowledge of lactation biology or cell culture. “The first six months was a lot, a lot of reading. Twelve hours a day reading scientific literature,” says House, a trained neuropsychologist. The work then moved to the laboratory.
The general idea is to take a few animal cells (from raw milk or from a cow) and extract the stem cells. These are practically “immortal”. We then combine certain genes naturally present in the cow to arrive at the ideal dairy cell. Immersed in a solution packed with nutrients and maintained at 37°C, this cell multiplies for 10 days. Lactation is finally triggered by exposing the culture to a hormone, prolactin.
We are two vegans. We know that society will not go vegan with existing products [comme le lait de soya]. We must therefore find a way to offer the public what they like, but without causing animal suffering.
One of the difficulties was to ensure that the cells proliferate vigorously while remaining sensitive, in a second step, to prolactin. Finding the right ingredients for the growing medium (amino acids, vitamins, sugars) was another challenge. At the end of 2021, Opalia managed to do without fetal bovine serum, a substance often used as a nutrient supplement for cell cultures, but expensive and of animal origin.
Opalia’s scientific director now claims that each of his cells in vitro produces an “equivalent” amount of milk to those in a cow – a world first, he says. “I admit it, at a certain point, we wondered if it would be possible. But we finally figured out how to make it happen, and it was one of the best moments of my life! says Mr. House.
Aim for a competitive price
And the environmental footprint? The nutrients given to the cells are used almost exclusively to produce milk, and not to meet the physiological needs of the cow. Logically, less is needed. Amino acids, synthesized in Asia, are the heaviest ingredient in the carbon footprint of Opalia cultured milk. This will generate less than half of the GHG emissions of traditional milk, according to preliminary calculations by the company.
So far, the start-up has raised more than $1 million in private investments and won numerous scholarships, including $100,000 at the Québec Climate Solutions awards in May. “Several million” more will be needed, however, to take the next step, which is to rent new premises, hire engineers specialized in bioprocesses and start small-scale production, says Ms.me Coast.
The owner allows herself to dream of commercial production within four years. The tanks where the cells will swarm will have to be large to achieve the economies of scale necessary to compete with traditional milk. Opalia will also have to obtain the green light from regulatory agencies, such as Health Canada, to sell its milk here or elsewhere in the world.
“The whole planet is not going to start drinking soy milk, believes Mme Coast. We want to facilitate the transition to more ecological production methods, and the only way to achieve this, in our opinion, is to replicate the products that people love. And in the end, what will be decisive will be the price. »