Date:

Tuesday, 10 March 2026

Time:

6:30pm – 8:00pm (Doors open at 6pm)

Venue:

Japan Creative Centre (JCC)
Embassy of Japan in Singapore
4 Nassim Road Singapore 258372

Admission:

FREE (Registration required)

6:00PM - 6:30PM

A new cellular agriculture approach was used to grow real fat from fish stem cells.

Stable cell lines were established from edible fish species that grow rapidly for long term, and turn into mature fat cells efficiently.

Scalable methods were developed to cultivate them in larger 3D systems suitable for industrial production. Importantly, the fish fat cells were enriched with omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for human health. The safety, nutritional content, and potential allergenicity were evaluated and found to be safe.

To bring this technology closer to market, a startup company was founded to scale production using bioreactors and to develop cost-effective, food-grade growth materials.

The speaker will share about cell-based fish fat as a novel food and nutritional source.

Sugii Shigeki is Principal Scientist and Platform Leader of Cultivated Technologies Platform at Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), A*STAR.

Prior to the current position, Shigeki was Principal Investigator / Group Leader at different institutes of A*STAR (2011-2023), before joining SIFBI. Shigeki graduated with B.S. in Agricultural Chemistry from Kyoto University, Japan and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Dartmouth School of Medicine, USA.

He then conducted his postdoctoral research with Prof. Ronald Evans at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA. His current research interests are novel antimicrobial peptides secreted by differentiating fat cells and cultivated fat from novel edible fish species. He is also a co-founder of ImpacFat and HealBac in Singapore.

Aquaculture is vital for global food security. While temperate areas like Japan have achieved stable production, tropical areas suffer gradual but consistent mortalities with various pathogens. The greatest challenge is controlling these diseases.

Commercial vaccines for fish have already proven effective in temperate regions. In tropical areas, autogenous vaccines — developed from pathogens within local fish farms — may offer a practical solution to tackle the vibrant environment.

With direct experience in commercial vaccine development, the speaker will highlight this approach as a turning point for sustainable aquaculture.

Prof. Miyata Masato was born in Kumamoto, Japan, in 1966. He studied fish diseases and molecular biology at Miyazaki University and earned his doctorate at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.

Following the fish disease research at Mie University in Japan and genome research at Erasmus Medical Centre in Netherlands, he moved to Singapore, where he worked on fish vaccine development at MSD Animal Health, Temasek Polytechnic, and, since 2021, Prime Aquaculture.