The cultivated meat industry has captured headlines and struggled with economics. Meanwhile, plant cell biomanufacturing is quietly solving the cost equation and approaching commercial launch. The question isn't whether cellular agriculture can work at scale. It's which applications will get there first, and what bioprocessing innovations will make it possible.

In Part 2, we dive into the commercialization challenges that separate laboratory curiosity from market-ready products. Steven Lang tackles the hard questions: How do you replicate chocolate's complex flavor profile without traditional fermentation? What analytical infrastructure ensures product consistency and safety? And how do you build the right team and data foundation to navigate the journey from premium launch to commodity-scale production?

Steven's background spanning Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, and Upside Foods gives him a unique perspective on what works and what doesn't when translating biopharma rigor to food applications. At California Cultured, he's applying those lessons to launch high-flavanol cocoa powder in 2026, with a clear roadmap to commodity cocoa and coffee thereafter.

In this episode:

• The challenge of replicating chocolate’s taste and fermentation in the lab (02:39)
• How plant cell culture differs from conventional farming and its advantages for safety and scalability (03:03)
• Analytical methods and equipment needed for consistent, safe, and high-quality cultured cocoa products (05:05)
• The potential for cell-based food to minimize heavy metals and other contaminants in chocolate (06:09)
• Environmental implications: tackling climate change, deforestation, and the realistic timeline for widespread adoption of lab-grown foods (06:50)
• Emerging opportunities beyond cocoa and coffee—saffron, ginseng, echinacea, and even lab-grown wood (08:40)
• Key advice for scientists and entrepreneurs interested in entering the cellular agriculture field (10:12)
• Building successful teams and robust data foundations in biotech startups (11:43)

Key takeaway:

Cellular agriculture's future isn't a single technology replacing conventional food production. It's multiple parallel approaches creating resilience in global food systems. The opportunity is clear: the technical principles you've mastered in biopharma translate directly to food applications, but the faster commercialization timelines and novel business models require rethinking what "stage-appropriate development" means.

The question for bioprocess leaders is whether you'll help build the solutions to bridge the food production gap, or watch from the sidelines as food security becomes the defining challenge of our generation.

Here is the previous conversation with Steven Lang:

• Episodes 55-56: Cultivated Meat: A Promising Future or an Inevitable Bubble? with Steven Lang

Connect with Steven Lang:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steven-lang-b003406

California Cultured Inc.: www.cacultured.com

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What if the chocolate industry's reliance on equatorial farms—and the deforestation that comes with it—could be eliminated entirely? Plant cell bioreactors are doing that, producing real cacao without a single tree. But this isn't just about chocolate. It's about fundamentally rethinking how we manufacture food at scale, and the bioprocessing innovations emerging from this shift have implications far beyond the food industry.

Steven Lang, Head of R&D at California Cultured, spent two decades mastering mammalian cell culture at biopharma giants like Johnson & Johnson and Genentech. Then he made a radical pivot: applying those same bioprocessing principles to cultivate plant cells for food production. His mission? Prove that cellular agriculture extends far beyond the cultivated meat narrative, and that plant cell manufacturing offers a faster, more economical path to market.

At California Cultured, Steven's team is scaling cacao and coffee production using innovative low-cost plastic bioreactors instead of expensive stainless steel vessels. They've engineered plant cell media formulations that operate at a fraction of typical bioprocessing costs. And they're preparing to launch their first commercial product—high-flavanol cocoa powder—in 2026.

What you'll discover in this episode:

• Why cellular agriculture ≠ cultivated meat (07:16) – Steven's frustration with the narrow definition that's holding the industry back, and why plant cell culture deserves equal attention
• Plant vs. animal cell culture fundamentals (09:26) – Technical comparison: totipotent plant cells, callus formation, adaptation to suspension culture, and how cacao cell lines are developed from explants
• Achieving 30-40% pack cell volume in 7-day batches (11:14) – Process parameters: ambient temperature growth, low pH environments, minimal downstream processing, and maintaining product consistency without genetic modification
• The economics that change everything (14:38) – How plant cell media costs and simple raw material requirements create commodity-scale economics
• The Tesla model for biotech (15:58) – Strategic rationale for launching with premium high-flavanol cocoa powder first, then using that revenue runway to optimize for commodity pricing
• Low-cost bioreactor innovation (18:23) – Why plastic vessels beat stainless steel, contamination management in low-pH cultures, and scale-out strategy over traditional scale-up
• Decentralized biomanufacturing (23:10) – Converting underutilized office space into production facilities, onshoring food ingredient production, and what this means for emerging markets and supply chain resilience
• The bigger picture beyond cacao (24:23) – Four approved drugs already produced via plant cell culture, the expanding landscape of ingredients (saffron, ginseng, echinacea), and why stage-appropriate models matter for cellular agriculture's future

The strategic insight:

While the cultivated meat industry struggles with cost structures and consumer acceptance, plant cell manufacturing is quietly proving the business model. The lesson for bioprocessing professionals? Sometimes the fastest path to commercialization isn't the most obvious one, and the innovations happening in food manufacturing today could reshape how we think about bioproduction economics across industries.

Here is the previous conversation with Steven Lang:

• Episodes 55-56: Cultivated Meat: A Promising Future or an Inevitable Bubble? with Steven Lang

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What happens when we move beyond oversimplified cell cultures and truly embrace the complexity of human biology? In this episode of the Smart Biotech Scientist Podcast, we explore how advanced 3D cell models are reshaping preclinical research—recreating human tissue microenvironments to better understand tumors, immunotherapies, and gene and cell therapies.

David’s guest is Catarina Brito, Principal Investigator at ITQB NOVA and Head of the Advanced Cell Models Laboratory at iBET and ITQB NOVA (Portugal). Her work bridges academia and industry through iBET, a unique partnering organization that integrates cell engineering, bioprocessing, and translational modeling.

Catarina’s pioneering models help both pharma leaders and startups predict drug resistance and immunogenicity earlier and more reliably, accelerating the path to safer, more effective therapies—well before clinical trials begin.

Topics discussed:

• Understanding the contribution of stromal and immune cells to therapy outcomes in tumor microenvironments (03:42)
• Studying immune responses to gene therapy vectors with advanced neural models (04:31)
• Combining multi-omics and spatial data with AI for predictive biology and patient-specific digital twins (05:16)
• Catarina’s advice: Start simple, let the biological question dictate model design, and avoid premature overengineering (06:53)
• Importance of reproducibility, process controls, and standardization in advanced models (08:10)
• How academic-industry collaborations drive model development, scalability, and real-world relevance (08:42)
• Common pitfalls: Overengineering, poor cell source selection, insufficient system validation (11:03)
• Next steps for precision medicine and translational research using advanced cell models (13:08)

Want to know how leading scientists make advanced cell models actionable and collaborative for pharma breakthroughs? Tune in for practical strategies, real-world collaborations, and pitfalls to avoid as you scale your own translational research.

Connect with Catarina Brito:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/catarina-brito-ibet

Advanced Cell Models Lab – iBET: www.ibet.pt/laboratories/advanced-cell-models-lab

Next step:

Need fast CMC guidance? → Get rapid CMC decision support here

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