SCU’s Commencement on the Research Facility at Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC), by Singapore Food Agency (SFA)

We are pleased to announce that Stem Cell United (SCU) has kickstarted the exciting “Green Caviar” sea grape project on 1^st Aug 2020 with a setting up of Research Facility focusing on the culture of high-quality Sea Grape at Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) granted by Singapore Food Agency (SFA). MAC is located on St John’s Island in the open southern waters of Singapore was established in 2003 to deepen Singapore’s expertise in the areas of aquaculture genetics, nutrition and health. This commensurate with SCU’s plan in plant stem cell technology application of Sea Grape for commercialisation as food and blue carbon credit.

(Location of SCU’s Research Facility in MAC) 

MAC was chosen by SCU as a strategic facility to foster a conducive and supportive environment as well as strong ecosystem in research and development in tropical aquaculture, as having demonstrated successful project undertakings such as large-scale hatchery production technology. The tropical climate and natural sea water around the island make it even more suitable for the Company to conduct various experiments on Sea Grapes which thrive on these compatible environmental conditions. As such, this further boost SCU’s overall plan to develop an International Seed Bank and Hatchery project within the region.

International Seed Bank and Hatchery Development

Through SCU’s proprietary smart seed technology, the hatchery research programme primarily focuses on 2 main areas:

• Smart Seed for Food & Nutrition applications: targeting of phenotypes for specific nutritional profile, higher growth rate or yield, and stress-resistant strains.
• Smart Seed for Environmental Sustainability applications: focus on Sea Grape’s bioremediation properties such as nitrate absorptions and CO2 sequestration.

In addition, as the Company plans to commercialise sea grape cultivation and production, SCU will also research and develop optimal cultivation techniques and conditions to achieve consistent high yield and high growth rate. Bolstering our research capabilities, our team also consist of research partners such as Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore) as well as Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia) with joint project collaboration undertakings across the value chain.

On-going Pilot Projects

Concurrently, through the MAC site, the Company will also provide a showcase of various sea grape cultivations and applications with multiple proof-of-concepts. Key highlights in the showcase are:

1. High-Yield Vertical Marine Vegetable Farming: Research and testing of different cultivation techniques such as Deep Tank, Tray-method and Indoor-Vertical Farming
2. Bioremediation: In single and multi-trophic experiments with fishes, shrimps, sea cucumber, corals etc.
3. Carbon Capture: CO2 sequestration of Sea Grape in conjunction with their various growth rates capabilities
4. Sea Grape Seed Bank and Hatchery: Cultivation of different species and genetics of sea grape in the region

In line with SCU’s mission of healing and nourishing the people and our planet, SCU strive to research and develop its plant stem cell technology applications on multiple high value crops around the world. More importantly, as a global citizen and partner, SCU will continue to endeavour to provide solutions to tackle food nutrition insecurity and climate change – a solution towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).