Transforming India's Biotech Landscape: A Partnership Between IKP and Umami Bioworks

The smart protein sector is rapidly evolving, with sustainable alternatives to traditional animal farming, driven by innovations like cell culture and plant-based proteins. Leading this transformation is Umami Bioworks, a key player in revolutionizing seafood production by tackling challenges like overfishing and pollutants. As India’s smart protein industry is projected to grow to $4.2 billion by 2030, Umami Bioworks is at the forefront of this shift.

At IKMC 2024, the Umami Bioworks team will participate in a Smart Protein Roundtable on Day 1, where they will join other industry leaders to discuss the future of sustainable food production. Attendees will have the chance to engage with the Umami team throughout the event, offering valuable opportunities for deeper conversations on the innovations shaping this crucial field.?

In this interview, we speak with Mihir Pershad, Founder and CEO of Umami Bioworks, to learn more about his journey and the company's mission.?

When and how was Umami Bioworks established?

I founded Umami Bioworks in 2019, but my journey began earlier with studies in biochemistry and research on muscle degenerative diseases. I later worked at a venture studio, licensing IP, and helping build startups, including those addressing disease management in fish farms. Observing challenges in seafood production, particularly with shrimp, during a visit to Southeast Asia, I saw an opportunity to tackle disease and scale-up issues. The idea for Umami emerged from the concept of growing food without raising animals on high-density farms. In 2020, I moved to Singapore to start Umami, aiming to revolutionize seafood production through cell culture technology, collaborating with traditional food manufacturers and seafood companies to focus on species that are difficult to farm.?

Can you describe your technology and the specific problem it solves?

In seafood production, we can only farm about a dozen species, while overfishing has endangered many others. This scarcity drives up costs and limits accessibility. With cell culture technology, we take a stem cell sample from a fish to create a stable, long-term cell line, which can produce thousands of tons from that initial sample. By growing these cells in bioreactors, we are addressing bottlenecks in the industry.

We focus on developing plant-based feeds and growth media, optimizing cell growth, and crafting the right nutritional profiles and flavours. We also handle cell harvesting and structuring, as cells in bioreactors grow individually, requiring additional steps to form tissue. We concentrate on the upstream process and then collaborate with major food companies to create the final products.

?How are you using machine learning to speed up product development?

We use machine learning to tackle key challenges in cultured food production, such as identifying the optimal cell clone and media formulation. By optimizing media ingredients and cell variations, machine learning enables faster screening and computer-based simulations, allowing us to test only a subset of outcomes in the lab.

We are also using machine learning in the bioprocess to help us simulate bioreactor processes. This lets us efficiently scale a successful small-scale solution to full production with less experimentation, time, and cost.

What challenges have you faced since establishment, and how have you addressed them?

Starting the company in late February 2020, just before COVID hit Singapore, presented significant challenges. Recruiting a team and finding lab space during strict lockdowns was tough. Technologically, we faced a steep learning curve as little was known about growing fish cells, isolating stem cells, selecting the right cells, and developing suitable feeds. Most existing research was on human cells for biopharma, so we had to pioneer work on serum-free media for fish cells.

Scaling up cost-effectively is a major challenge. While biopharma solutions are available, they do not fit our industry's cost model. Lab-scale production works in the short term, but for commercial readiness, pharma bioreactor and manufacturing costs are too high to maintain competitive food prices. We must prioritize problems to address first, saving others for later stages, as tackling everything simultaneously would require excessive resources.?

What was the objective of your recent partnership with the Centre for Smart Protein in Bengaluru?

Growing in Singapore has taught us that while it is a great hub, global expansion requires establishing roots and building strengths elsewhere. Singapore was ideal for our initial upstream science and cell line work, but as we moved towards manufacturing, it became clear that India is emerging as a global hub for biomanufacturing due to its talent, experience, and supply chain. We aimed to be part of this ecosystem and hire experienced professionals to drive the next wave of biomanufacturing. Partnering with the Smart Protein Centre allowed us to establish ourselves in Bengaluru, a key biomanufacturing city in India, without starting from scratch. This collaboration is accelerating our team’s progress significantly.?

Given your focus on seafood, in which areas do you expect Umami Bioworks to make a significant impact?

We're starting with seafood species that are difficult to farm without subsidies and have high carbon emissions, which make up about 20-25% of the seafood market. But the more fundamental shift we are driving is proving the economics of making products through cell culture, that we used to have to catch and extract. If we succeed with seafood, we could address other climate-threatened products, like cacao for coffee, which faces drought and climate change challenges. If we can demonstrate production at $10-20 per kilogram in a scalable manufacturing setup, we believe we could create an infrastructure layer similar to what Amazon Web Services did for software. We are proving that it works with seafood, but the potential applications are much broader.

What are your plans moving forward?

We envision ourselves being the go-to provider for biomanufacturing systems for anybody who wants to make a non-pharma product. When cost and volume are requirements, we think our system is going to be the best one built for that purpose.

To be clear, we do not want to make our own coffee or cacao. We aim to assist those with cell lines, like for cacao, who lack the resources or time to scale and optimize them. By transferring our expertise across products, we can accelerate and support the growth of this entire ecosystem.

How does the work of Umami Bioworks align with the SDGs? Which SDGs are most relevant to your company's mission?

At Umami, we focus on several SDGs. SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) is a key priority, as we work towards enhancing food security and providing nutritious options. SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) is another focus, as our biomanufacturing roles create skilled jobs near population centres. Lastly, SDG 14 (Life Below Water) drives our efforts to protect endangered species by offering alternatives to overfishing. These SDGs align closely with our mission and impact.

To meet the Umami Bioworks team and many other innovators shaping the future of food, join us at IKP’s 17th flagship annual International Knowledge Millennium Conference, IKMC 2024 – IKP@25: An Epic Rhapsody & The Next Symphony, taking place at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) and IKP from October 26-28, 2024. Umami Bioworks will be participating in a Smart Protein Roundtable on Day 1, where key industry leaders will discuss sustainable food innovation.

To learn more about the event please visit: https://ikmc2024.com.

Register for IKMC 2024 here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdB3Ca_idFG58VlFMytoqbzILkbIaLE1bb40KFo_rIRCva6wg/viewform