Professor Yaakov Nahmias: Bioengineering for a Better World

February 2014 saw Dr. Nahmias win a Rappaport Prize for Excellence in Biomedical Research. Collaborating with investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, he identified a grapefruit molecule called naringenin that can block virus replications. Later that year, he became an associate professor at his university and took charge of the MicroLiver Technologies Laboratory, studying liver development, regeneration, and metabolism.

By early 2017, Professor Nahmias had pieced together various aspects of his academic work and was ready to focus on his first entrepreneurial goal. He founded Tissue Dynamics Ltd., a biotechnology company that develops and provides advanced toxicology screening services for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Professor Nahmias and his company produced a model of the human kidney. But they also embedded electro-optical microsensors into the tissues for constant monitoring throughout experiments. In this way, they knew in real time how a drug was working and when it was not.

Under the guidance of Professor Nahmias, Tissue Dynamics is leading the way to a future where human-on-a-chip technology accelerates the pace and reduces the cost of developing new drugs while keeping our furry friends out of the laboratory.

He founded Future Meat Technologies in April 2018 and once again assumed the responsibilities of a chief scientific officer. Upon completion, the company began producing 500 kilograms of cultured meat daily. As it turned out, the genetic complexity of Future Meat’s product gave it the texture, authentic smell, and flavor that the public wanted.

By November 2021, the company’s founder and chief scientific officer had also become its president. The following year, he changed the firm’s name to Believer Meats and decided to open a commercial-scale production center in North Carolina, USA. Construction began in December 2022 on an 18,000-square-meter facility that will cultivate beef, pork, lamb and chicken meat without killing any animal-people.