Dr Faraz Harsini
Bio
Participation1
I hold a PhD in protein expression, and my original professional focus was cancer research. As a grad student, I realized that changing how we eat is crucial to solving many of the world's greatest challenges, from pandemics to global hunger to environmental destruction to animal welfare. That's why I pivoted towards using my career to help reform the food system through advocacy and innovation.
Today, I'm the Bioprocessing Senior Scientist at the Good Food Institute and the Co-Founder and CEO of Allied Scholars for Animal Protection (ASAP), a nonprofit which provides mentorship and support to animal advocates, particularly student organizations, to effectively advocate for human and nonhuman animals alike. I'm also one of the advisers at Effective Thesis, helping other scholars to work on impactful theses.
https://gfi.org/team/faraz-harsini/
https://www.alliedscholars.org/
https://effectivethesis.org/expert-network/
My article about cultivated meat, pandemics, climate, and alt proteins:
https://www.whatiscultivatedmeat.com/post/guest-writer-dr-faraz-harsini
How others can help me
Let me know if you'd like to get involved with my high-impact nonprofit, Allied Scholars for Animal Protection. We're currently focused on scaling up and establishing chapters at universities around the US.
How I can help others
I'm always happy to talk to students about careers in animal advocacy and alternative proteins and connect them with any resources I know of. I've been a guest speaker for multiple college EA groups around the US and Europe, including Columbia University, Harvard University, MIT, UT Austin, and more.
Posts 8
Comments5
Hi there,
Contamination overall doesn't seem to be a major concern. There is no inherent physical limitation to control contamination above 10kL scale. This is commonly already done in pharma. With larger scales the only issue is that risk of contamination can cost a lot as a lot of material will have to be discarded. Overall the batch failure rate is low in pharma:
https://www.bioprocessonline.com/doc/bioprocessing-sees-continued-improvements-in-batch-failure-reductions-in-0001
For cultivated meat the trick is to do so without relying on expensive Good Manufacturing Practices (i.e. high end and expensive clean rooms).
There are other areas to improve that will reduce the risk of contamination. For instance, more automated or continuous processes reduce the risk of contamination. There is also ongoing research on peptides with antibiotic properties that will go away during purification or cooking.
Another way to mitigate the contamination risk is to scale out instead of scale up. So use 10 x 10kL bioreactors instead of 1x100kL one.
Overall, contamination risk does not seem to be a major risk. Bigger challenges are reducing the cost of media and bioreactors!
Also you can watch my presentation. At 16:37 I share a personal story about running cell culture in office area!
Hope this helps!
Thank you very much Constance! I was a PETA camp rep and I had my friend to apply for THL student rep program. But even those programs where not focused on building a sustainable community and were mostly focused on training individuals or supporting certain campaigns!
We want to not only support individuals, but also build a sustainable community and infrastructure! This current trend, where student orgs come and go every 2-3 years, and each student org is doing a different thing, is not effective and doesn't work, yet as you mentioned, there's tremendous potential in universities. People whom if we invest on, can change the system!
Thanks again for the kind words!
A few days ago, I posted an introduction to my new nonprofit, Allied Scholars for Animal Protection. Just want to mention that we've also released a video introducing the organization on Youtube:
The scale of animal suffering and exploitation is vast, yet it remains one of the most neglected moral crises of our time. Beyond its ethical implications, animal farming is a key driver of some of the most pressing global public health challenges, including antibiotic resistance, zoonotic pandemics, and the rise of chronic diseases. Heart disease, the leading cause of death globally, is closely linked to the consumption of animal products—meat, eggs, and dairy—laden with saturated fat, endotoxins, and inflammatory compounds. By shifting away from animal farming, we not only alleviate immense animal suffering but also target systemic issues that exacerbate global public health risks. This transition addresses interconnected challenges such as global malnutrition, climate change, and the fragility of food systems, offering a high-impact solution with profound ethical, environmental, and health benefits.