Solaris and Wildtype Are Innovating “The Food of the Future”

Solaris and Wildtype present at 2022 Galileo Festival of Science and Innovation in Padua, Italy

One of the most fascinating discussions at the 2022 Galileo Festival of Science and Innovation had to be “The Food of the Future” with Solaris Managing Director Matteo Brognoli and Justin Kolbeck, co-founder of Wildtype.

The Galileo Festival is a program started by the Municipality of Padua, Italy and Italypost, consisting in talks, workshops, and seminars (with more than 150 speakers and 50 events) ranging from the future of the economy, artificial intelligence, and robotics to medicine, health, energy, and biotech.

Wildtype Is Leading Innovation in Healthy and Sustainable Food

Wildtype Foods is one of those innovative companies leading the way for healthy and sustainable food, and Solaris is proud to provide bioreactors for their cell culture process development.

Wildtype salmon sushi

Wildtype is an American biotech company founded in 2016 by Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck that produces seafood grown from fish cells. Its main manufacturing facility is located in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Wildtype's primary goal is to produce Pacific salmon cultivated in a cheaper, healthier and more sustainable way than conventionally harvested fish.

The salmon produced by Wildtype is grown in the laboratory. The process starts from self-regenerating stem cells of the fish and then growing them in a hyper-controlled environment (ie Solaris’ cell culture bioreactors.)

Then, to complete the cellular structure of the salmon, they use the right mix of plant cells to achieve a final healthier product with the appearance, taste, and nutritional properties practically identical to normal wild or farmed salmon.

Cell Culture Bioreactors

Solaris Jupiter Pressurized - Cell Culture Bioreactor for Cellular Agriculture

The hyper-controlled environment mentioned above is recreated inside bioreactors.

Bioreactors are systems that allow control over a wide variety of parameters, which in turn maintain high production quality. Wildtype has chosen the latest generation Solaris cell culture bioreactors for its large salmon production development project.

Cultured salmon is healthier because it is produced in laboratories and thanks to the controlled and sterile environment of the cell culture bioreactor, it is not contaminated by mercury, antibiotics, microplastics, or parasites.

(Pictured to the left is Solaris' Jupiter Pressurized.)

A Healthier Way To Eat Fish

Wildtype salmon looks and tastes like salmon because it is salmon, but not wild or farmed.

Due to the pollution of the seas, some of the biggest problems that arise in the consumption of fish are the presence of methylmercury in large fish. This residue of antibiotics (to make fish grow better and more resistant to disease) and microplastics that are now present almost everywhere, from the water we drink to the fish we eat.

By growing seafood directly from cells, Wildtype cultivates genuine salmon and other seafood without relying on wild or farmed fish. We now have the ability to keep what we love about seafood on our plates - the delicious protein and nutritious fats - without the things we’d rather leave out.

Solaris and the Healthy Food Revolution

We at Solaris Biotech are delighted to take part in these great revolutionary initiatives which have an absolutely positive impact on our diet and ecosystem.

Our two companies are born from the desire to help and be part of an improvement that can help the world. We feel compelled to do our part, to thank and preserve nature, and to celebrate the life of future generations.