Recently I been researching on the concept of bio-printing. One of the most revolutionized innovations to be tested is brio-printing new organs for regenerative medicine. The idea is to be able to print out new organs for sick patients or patients waiting for an organ donor. This concept not only will change medical procedures, but will save millions of lives in need for an organ transplant.
The process
Through this idea Dr. Gabor Forgacs, founder of Modern Meadow, is the first to focus on creating cultured meat and leather. The concept of bioprinting meat is illustrated as follow: “to bioengineer meat, the scientists first get stem cells or other specialized cells from an animal via a common procedure known as biopsy. Stem cells are cells able to replicate themselves many times, and also can turn into other specialized cells. Once the cells multiplied to sufficient numbers, they are put into a bio-cartridge. So instead of traditional ink or a material like plastic, the 3D printer cartridge contains something called bioink made of hundreds of thousands of live cells. Once printed in the desired shape, the bioink particles naturally fuse to form living tissue. This process of bioprinting biomaterials is similar to attempts to print artificial organs for transplants – but the result could well end up in your frying pan.” (This is also illustrated above)
Although the thought of consuming bioengineering meat will bring controversy and critics, it also provides an option to stop/help world hunger, end the inhumane conditions cattle undergo in slather houses and improve environmental conditions. As stated in a 2011 study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology showed that “full-scale production of cultured meat could greatly reduce water, land and energy use, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, compared with conventional raising and slaughtering of cattle or other livestock.” This study is an eye opener because as our population continues to increase our consumption of meat will significantly increase as well. As the figure above shows, today we depend on 60 billion land animals to obtain our meat source, yet by 2050 it is estimated that our meat consumption will double. The question here is will there be enough cattle to feed our growing population in the future? At this point bioprinted meat is an appealing option to investigate.
However we must also think of the conflict, one of them is people’s perceptions of meat being produce in a laboratory rather than a traditional slaughter house. Dr. Forgacs is well aware of this concern and believes is best to introduce consumer to cultured leather first before cultured meat. He hopes people will notice the benefits of cultured leather; this way consumers will have a greater chance of accepting cultured meat. However although it may be a good strategic way to introduce people to this concept of bioprinting, I believe manufacturing leather is different from creating meat. Meat is food that we consume and leather is a material people can use or wear. Although bioprinting is still at an early life stage, it’s going to be interesting seeing how bioprinting will develop in the future and how human behavior may change completely and adapt to a new way of consuming goods.
For more information use links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Q2oLxEOF8
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20972018
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/peter-thiels-3d-meat_n_1789665.html
http://www.webpronews.com/3d-printed-meat-may-be-the-future-of-food-2013-09