Provided herein are methods to increase the culture density and / or thickness of a cellular
biomass in a cultivation infrastructure, to improve the culture of cells in the absence of serum in a cultivation infrastructure, and to promote anchorage-independent growth of a cellular
biomass in a cultivation infrastructure. The methods comprise inhibiting the HIPPO signaling pathway, for example, by activating YAP1, activating TAZ, and / or inhibiting MOB1, LATS1
kinase, LATS2
kinase, WW45, MST1
kinase, and / or MST2 kinase in the cellular
biomass. In some embodiments, the cellular biomass is harvested from the cultivation infrastructure for the formulation of
cell-based
food products or ingredients, such as animal meat manufactured from cells in an
ex vivo process or for therapeutic applications such as organ or
tissue transplantation or
grafting.