Dr. Mariana Petronela (Petra) Hanga is a Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering at the University College London, a previous GFI grantee and also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quest Meat Lt, a cultivated meta start-up based in Birmingham, UK. As a biochemical engineer by training, Dr. Hanga’s research interests lie at the intersection of engineering and the life sciences. Her research addresses two distinct grand challenges. The first is healthcare, by developing future therapies that will minimize the economic and social burden of an aging population; the second is food and nutrition for health, by advancing cultivated meat technologies that will enable a radical shift away from livestock products. Dr. Hanga’s multidisciplinary strengths and expertise include an understanding of the whole cell culture bioprocess from inoculation to harvest, including engineering characterization of bioreactors and biological characterization of cells. She holds degrees in biochemical engineering and regenerative medicine.