INSECT CELL LINES: A SUSTAINABLE SOURCE OF NOVEL FOOD

This thesis explores insect cell lines as a foundation for sustainable protein production, focusing on cultivated meat and circular bioeconomy pathways. The work focuses on cellular physiology, differentiation pathways, and tissue organization relevant to muscle and adipose development for cultivated meat. The thesis reviews the technological and socio-regulatory context for Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly, BSF) across food, feed, and pet nutrition, highlighting consumer acceptance factors, risk management along processing chains, and the European “novel foods” framework. These considerations inform product design and regulatory readiness for insect-derived ingredients and for insect-based cellular agriculture. Empirically, the thesis advances practical routes to muscle- oriented insect primary cultures in two insect species. In BSF, it identifies a developmentally informed window to obtain heterogeneous yet myogenesis- prone primary cultures and links controllable culture levers—such as adhesion kinetics and calcium chelation—to shifts in myogenic organization, supported by molecular and imaging readouts. These findings establish a tractable benchmark for downstream efforts in serum reduction, scalability, and scaffold integration for cultivated meat. As concern the second insect species treated, Tenebrio molitor (yellow mealworm), the thesis establishes embryo-derived primary cultures with sustained viability and spontaneous contractile features and evaluates selective-adhesion and time- dependent pre-plating as routes to myogenic enrichment, while also delineating constraints encountered in neonate- larvae based approaches. Collectively, the thesis contributes (i) a cross-species conceptual framing for insect cells in cellular agriculture, (ii) practical, species- tailored workflows for initiating and biasing myogenic phenotypes, and (iii) a translational lens spanning safety, acceptance, and regulation.