iCAMP (Integrative Center for Alternative Meat & Protein)

🎉 Celebrating One Year of iCAMP! 🎉 We are thrilled to celebrate the one-year anniversary of iCAMP (Integrative Center for Alternative Meat & Protein)! 🚀 As the first comprehensive center of excellence focused on sustainable alternative meats and proteins, we’ve had an incredible year advancing innovative research in plant-based, fungal-based, and cell-based solutions, while fostering robust education, public outreach, and a thriving industry ecosystem. Our collaborative partnership between the University of California, Davis, UCLA, UCANR/The PLANT, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Solano Community College, The Culinary Institute of America, and USDA, have been pivotal. In just one year, we’ve: 🌱 Conducted over 300 industry meetings, including 54 tours of our facilities at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science. 🔬 Funded 5 research seed grants fostering alternative protein biomanufacturing and food innovation. 🤝 Hosted 3 Protein Central industry & academic mixers. 🎤 Welcomed California State Treasurer Fiona Ma as our keynote speaker at the 3rd Annual Alternative Protein Summit. 🍽️ Co-hosted five food innovation events, driving creativity in the sector. 🌍 Engaged with countless stakeholders through webinars, economic council meetings, biomanufacturing conferences/retreats and food innovation summits across the U.S. and internationally. With 20 amazing partners joining us, we’re excited to announce these collaborations in the coming weeks! Together, we’re committed to accelerating the commercialization of sustainable alternative protein production to meet the growing global demand for nutritious, affordable food. Looking ahead to 2025, we’re eager to host quarterly Protein Central events, partner with food system organizations: Seed Central, AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS), and the Cultured Meat Symposium, and prepare for iCAMP25, our 4th Annual Alternative Meat & Protein Summit on September 8-9, featuring prominent speakers including Congressman Ami Bera and Bruce Friedrich, Founder and President of the Good Food Institute. We will also continue to focus on building more industry and organizational partnerships, showcasing innovative research, and sharing more educational resources with the public. Shout out to our iCAMP Leadership Team! David Block, Amy Rowat, Denneal Jamison-McClung, Christine Diepenbrock, Yixiang Xu, Ruihong Zhang, Mark Marten, Lucas Smith, Nitin Nitin, Karen McDonald, Somen Nandi, Harishankar Manikantan, Andrew Gravelle, Jim DeKloe, Luxin Wang, Danielle Lemay, Keith Baar, Michael Roberts, A. Janet Tomiyama, Greg Drescher Here’s to another year of innovation, collaboration, and making a meaningful impact! 🌍💚 #iCAMP #altprotein #Sustainability #FoodInnovation #Collaboration #ProteinCentral

LifeSpace Labs , in partnership with the City of Vacaville Government and the Solano WDB, is offering a six-week no-cost biotechnology training program on the fundamentals of Next Generation Sequencing (NCS). The first cohort began Sept. 27 and includes seven Solano County residents who are gaining practical skills in DNA extraction, library preparation, and data analysis through real-world exercises. The program combines lab work with lectures and assessments and is ideal for entry-level biotech roles and those transitioning into the bioeconomy.

Come join us for the next Protein Central Mixer! We are building the ecosystem and network to accelerate commercialization of food innovation and biomanufacturing with quarterly networking events between leading alternative protein researchers and the movers & shakers in food innovation ecosystem. A chance for biomanufacturing developers, incubators, strategic organizations/individuals, and industry partners to regularly gather, mix, mingle and learn with the Integrative Center for Alternative Meat & Protein (iCAMP)! Date & Time: November 22nd, 2024 5 - 7:30 pm Location: Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at University of California, Davis RSVP: by November 15th, 2024 Research Speakers: iCAMP Fungal Based Co-Leads Professor Ruihong Zhang and Professor Mark Marten #iCAMP #alternativeprotein #biomanufacturing

We were honored to host Professor David Block and Kara E. Leong's first-ever cultivated meat tasting! 🥓 As leaders in the academic research community for cultivated meat at University of California, Davis and the Integrative Center for Alternative Meat & Protein (iCAMP), David and Kara have been instrumental in advancing the field - so you can imagine how excited we were to give them a tour of our facility and share some of our favorite cultivated pork products. A special moment during the visit—our Bioprocess Engineer, Grace K., had the chance to reconnect with David (her research professor during undergrad) over a few slices of our Italian salami! 🐷

Global Food Security is intricately linked to policy, regulations, and laws. We are honored to have leading experts from around the world share their knowledge and thoughts on the "State of Global & US Domestic Policy on Alternative Proteins" at this year's iCAMP24, 3rd Annual Cultivated Meat and Alternative Protein Summit! REGISTER SOON: https://lnkd.in/gnjSAMZx Leading the discussion is our longstanding and close advisor Eric Schulze, PhD, a former FDA regulator who led the charge for UPSIDE Foods cultivated meat approval. Joining him is UCLA Professor/Resnick Food Policy & Law Center Executive Director and Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein Policy & Regulatory Leader Michael Roberts, Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA) 細胞農業研究機構 President Megumi Avigail Yoshitomi, Food Solutions Action Director of Policy Jimmy Fremgen, and Food Standards Agency Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor Rick Mumford. We look forward to seeing you on September 9th, 2024! Hosted by the Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein and UC Davis Biotechnology Program #iCAMP24 #iCAMP #altprotein #alternativeprotein #plantbased #fungalbased #cultivatedmeat #cellbased #cellag #cellularagriculture #food #foodinnovation #research #foodscience #foodinnovation #foodtech #biomanufacturing #bioeconomy #biotechnology #summit #ucdavis #ucla #UPSIDEFoods #FoodStandardsAgency #FDA #USDA #UK #Japan #foodsolutionsaction #goodhumans #foodpolicy #foodregulation

The Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP) needs a LOGO! We are looking for amazing #student #graphic #artists and #designers from our partnering institutions (University of California, Davis, UCLA, Solano Community College, The Culinary Institute of America, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS)) to join our #iCAMP logo competition! Create a logo representing the diverse work in alternative proteins (plant, fungal, cell based) at iCAMP and the winning design will receive a $500 Amazon gift card. Deadline: June 21st, 11:59 PM PT For details and submission, visit: https://lnkd.in/gK7HydZw Shout out to Alex Shirazi and the Cultured Meat Symposium for partnering with us on this fantastic competition! I can't wait to see what amazing and powerful designs are created! #alternativeproteinweek #plantbased #fungalfoods #mycoprotein #fermentation #cellbased #cultivatedmeat #altprotein #alternativeprotein #foodinnovation #competition #logo #branding #brandawareness