Name: Dr Alessandro Bertero 

Job title: Associate Professor of Experimental Biology in the Department of Health Sciences and Biotechnology

Organisation: University of Turin

Alternative protein specialism: Cultivated meat

An Italian researcher has turned to the public to fund a project he believes has the potential to scale up cultivated meat production.

Alessandro Bertero, from the University of Turin, is applying findings from a career working on heart muscle cells for therapeutic application to developing more efficient cell lines – the building blocks of cultivated meat.

However, due to a lack of available government funding, his team have launched a crowdfunding campaign, with ambitions of raising up to €100,000 – enough to purchase a 20-litre cultivator to demonstrate the project’s feasibility.

Alessandro has been surprised to have received so many donations from fellow Italians – despite the government’s controversial ban on cultivated meat – and views this as a sign of untapped public interest as well as the need for more funding.

“The campaign has been a breath of fresh air for many people,” he said. “They learned about cultivated meat and saw it as another example of an opportunity that could be taken away from Italy.

“I hope this shows the government’s policies don’t represent a universal truth that everyone in Italy is against cultivated meat. This isn’t a scientific survey – but it does show there is interest in proper communication about this field.”

Alessandro says his campaign – which comes as GFI Europe analysis finds that Italy has the region’s largest number of researchers working on alternative proteins at 504 – demonstrates the need for more public funding to be made available for scientists working in this nascent field. 

“Hopefully this will put a bit of pressure on our government and the EU,” he says. “It shows how committed we are to raising even a small amount of money. The amount we’re asking for would be a toss of spare change to them.”

Findings from regenerative medicine 

Alessandro developed an expertise in pluripotent stem cells – able to grow indefinitely and differentiate into any kind of cells including fat and muscle tissue – when he completed a British Heart Foundation PhD programme at the University of Cambridge, and he has spent much of his career working in regenerative medicine.

Alessandro says his research can now be used to develop cell lines that don’t rely on the most expensive growth factors, which are used to feed cells as they grow in the fermentor and are one of the costliest elements of cultivated meat development.

He hopes – if his team is able to access enough funding – these cell lines could be supplied to cultivated meat companies around the world, helping them reduce costs, streamline scalability and ultimately make mass production more economically viable. 

The breath of climate change

Alessandro was inspired to channel his expertise into cultivated meat while working as a stem cell researcher at the University of Washington in the United States, when his first child was born and the state experienced a devastating wave of wildfires. 

“I felt the breath of climate change on my neck,” he said. “At the time I was starting to work on ideas around cellular agriculture and realised I needed to do something.”

Although cultivated meat began by borrowing insights from regenerative medicine, Alessandro thinks if enough researchers begin working in alternative proteins, their findings could go on to work the other way – potentially helping to drive down the cost of developing critical cell therapies.

“I like to think that one day we’ll be applying this technology back to regenerative medicine and pay it back,” he said.

Collaboration and communication is key

In the meantime, he is inspired by the growing interest in cultivated meat, particularly among young Italians. 

“I get so many applications from students, I’m having to turn people away,” he said. “We have people from so many backgrounds – from biotechnology to market research – wanting to work with us.”

He says collaboration and communication will play a vital role in bringing cultivated meat to the mainstream, but he is under no illusions about the obstacles he faces. 

“We’re in for the long game,” he said. “This isn’t just about getting cultivated meat into a single restaurant – it’s about creating a scalable, foundational technology that can support a new industry.” 

Are you interested in getting involved in the science of plant-based food, cultivated meat and fermentation? Take a look at our resources or check out our science page.

If you’re a researcher:

• To find funding opportunities, check out our research funding database for grants from across the sector, and our research grants for funding available from GFI.
• Explore our Advancing Solutions initiative, which highlights key alternative protein knowledge gaps.
• Subscribe to the alternative protein researcher directory to find potential collaborators or supervisors in the field.  
• Look out for monthly science seminars run through our GFIdeas community.

If you’re a student:

• Find educational courses around the globe through our database.
• Sign up for our free online course introducing the science of sustainable proteins, explore our resource guide explaining what is available to students or newcomers to the space, and check out our careers board for the latest job opportunities in this emerging field.