We are the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA). We started conducting cultivated meat research in 2016 through a collaboration with the cellular agriculture nonprofit New Harvest and our first cultured meat PhD student, Natalie Rubio! As of 2024, we’ve grown to a group of over 90 researchers from the undergraduate to faculty level led by our Director, Professor Kaplan.

Our research primarily focuses on the basic science that underlies cultured meat (i.e the generation of muscle and fat tissue outside an animal’s body). Examples include muscle cell engineering to enhance nutrition and cost reduction, the use of insect cells as a platform in the generation of large scale meat tissue, and the application/adaptation of conventional meat science techniques to evaluate meat generated in vitro.

Due to the high level of interest in cultured meat from undergraduate students at Tufts University, we created a class to help everyone learn more about it, as well as to teach technical skills that may be relevant for students interested in joining the field.