Immortal beef: Israeli scientists discover how to make cow cells divide indefinitely

Israeli scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Israeli food-tech company Believer Meats, have announced a breakthrough that could reshape the global cultivated meat industry. In a peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in Nature Food, researchers revealed they were able to induce spontaneous, unlimited cell division—commonly referred to as “cellular immortality”—in beef cells without genetic modification or cancerous transformation.

Until now, the prevailing belief in the field was that establishing a stable, self-renewing bovine cell line required deliberate genetic engineering—unlike with chicken cells, where similar results have already been achieved. This new study challenges that assumption.

The ability to develop a stable, safe, and scalable cell line without genetic modification is seen as a breakthrough solution to two of the most critical challenges facing the cultivated meat industry.