In our latest episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rachel Valenzuela—Head of Discovery at Upside Foods, the first company globally to receive FDA approval for cultivated meats from real animal cells—to chat about her journey through chemistry, chemical biology, and genome engineering through the Philippines and the U.S to her current role as a breakthrough scientist studying which cell types can revolutionize our lab-grown meat pipeline.

We begin the episode by diving into Rachel’s PhD research in siRNA efficacy and specificity, which led her to Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI). Rachel discusses her work at the IGI at the nexus of academia and industry, as she worked on projects involving large corporations, such as Pfizer, to both develop scientific tools and think about their applications in a real-world drug discovery pipeline.

In the second half of the episode, we break down the start of Rachel’s journey at UPSIDE Foods over 5 years ago as a Cell Line Engineer alongside less than 10 employees. Rachel breaks down the structure of the early research teams, the decision-making to tackle a wide range of species—including avian, mammalian, and crustacean—to study the cell biology of, and how she has seen UPSIDE Foods evolve drastically as the company develops a higher focus on speeding up the discovery to commercialization pipeline. We close out by discussing how self-mentorship has enabled Rachel to identify and close the gaps she experiences as she pivots across decisions, roles, and projects.

UPSIDE Foods’ Recent USDA Approval For Cultivated Chicken: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/fda-approves-1st-cell-cultivated-meat-upside-foods/story?id=100278334