Cultured meat is grown by seeding animal muscle stem cells (satellite cells) onto an edible scaffold inside a stirred-tank bioreactor, then feeding them growth media rich in amino acids, glucose and growth factors until they proliferate and fuse into muscle fibers.
This scene models a scaffold-free cell aggregate as it expands inside the vessel. Population growth follows logistic (Verhulst) kinetics limited by a carrying capacity K, while the *rate* of growth is throttled by dissolved-oxygen availability (Monod saturation) and by temperature deviating from the mammalian optimum:
dN/dt = mu * N * (1 - N/K)
mu = mu_max * [GF/(Kgf+GF)] * [O2/(Km+O2)] * exp(-((T-37)/sigma)^2)
doubling time t_d = ln(2) / mu
Each visible sphere is one cell instance packed onto a growing Fibonacci-sphere lattice; the aggregate radius scales with N^(1/3) as biomass accumulates, mirroring real 3D spheroid culture.
- Growth factor dose — sets the ligand concentration driving mitogenic signalling (Monod term, half-saturation Kgf).
- Dissolved O₂ — oxygen available for aerobic metabolism; low O₂ starves growth (Monod term, half-saturation Km).
- Temperature — cells grow fastest near 37°C; the Gaussian penalty models cold/heat stress.
- Impeller speed — mixing rate; spins the aggregate and agitator, and improves nutrient/O₂ transport up to a point before shear stress appears (visualized by vessel turbulence).
Industrially, optimizing these same variables (media cost, oxygen transfer rate, bioreactor mixing) is the central engineering challenge in scaling cellular agriculture to commercial volumes.