UPSIDE Foods has launched a spinoff company called Lucius Labs to commercialize cell culture media for the life sciences industry. The new company will leverage UPSIDE's expertise in cultivated meat to develop and sell cell culture media products targeting human and animal health bioprocessing applications. Lucius Labs offers a variety of classical media formulations, buffers, and stem cell formulations, with the capability to produce custom formulas in as little as two to four weeks.

The move comes as UPSIDE Foods faces financial pressures, including workforce reductions and pausing the construction of a large-scale facility in Illinois. The company's expansion into adjacent industries, such as developing cell culture media, aims to bring in additional revenue while continuing to work on cultivated meat products. Lucius Labs aims to reinvent media development to provide cost-effective and efficient solutions for life-saving technologies, setting a new standard in the industry.