Sydney-based cultured meat startup Vow Foods has created the world’s first edible protein developed from the DNA of an extinct animal, the woolly mammoth.
Vow, which touts its technology as a solution to climate change and uses mammoths as “monumental symbols of what we are now destined to lose,” held a lab-grown meat ( announced the latest experiments on meat grown from animal cells. Time, at the Hood Futurist Conference.
The meat is produced using molecular engineering that contains cells inserted with authentic mammoth DNA, including sequencing gaps filled with DNA from the mammoth’s closest living relative, the African elephant. I was.
The Western Sydney-based startup began producing cultured meat from pig and kangaroo cells in 2019. Since then, we have produced meat from the cells of various animals such as rabbits, mice, goats, buffaloes and even alpacas. More than 50 lab-grown meats, including fish, are being considered for the dish.
Vow is backed by leading Australian venture capital funds including Blackbird, Square Peg and Grok, Mike Cannon-Brookes’ family fund. The seed in January 2021 saw him raise $7.7 million in the round, and last November he raised his record $73.5 million Series A.
Vow lab-grown mammoth meatballs. Photo: Aiko Lind.
Bringing the theatricality befitting PT Barnum to Vow’s science and narrative, the Mammoth Meatballs concept was developed by Bas Korsten, Chief Creative Officer at ad agency Wunderman Thompson. Korsten was responsible for his 2016 project The Next Rembrandt. This is an artificial intelligence 3D printed painting created after AI examined the oeuvre of a Dutch Renaissance painter.
Slick Video calls to regulators to keep up with the technological changes Vow is pioneering launched as part of the Mammoth Meatballs project, the startup claimed to have a solution to climate change. It ends with the catchphrase “Let’s eat our way out of extinction.”
Vow co-founder Tim Noakesmith says in the video that he wants to “change all notions about what meat is,” and that the company’s ambition is to “feed billions of people.” added that it is.
“Cultivated meat significantly reduces the impact of climate change that is normally associated with regular meat production,” he said.
“Now the world needs cultured meat.”
Singapore is the only country in the world where cultured meat is legal for human consumption. Bau will offer farmed quail meat. A concept restaurant called Morsel that is currently offering sign-ups We challenge “the best dishes in the world”.
Noakesmith argues that cultured meat can be engineered for both environmental benefits as well as greater taste and nutritional value than regular meat.
The startup worked with Professor Ernst Wolvetang of the Australian Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Queensland to develop mammoth meat using sheep myoblast stem cells.
The Dodo of Mauritius was the original plan, but despite regular talk of reviving a flightless bird 370 years after humans went extinct, the idea has been dictated by the fact that the DNA sequence doesn’t exist. Hampered by facts.
This is probably for the best, as dodos are often used as exemplars of technology triumphing over those who can’t adapt quickly enough.
a A 2021 paper prepared by London think tank Chatham House He argued that food production is a major contributor to global biodiversity loss.
In a world where so many animals are now endangered, not because they are in dire need of meat, but because of cult cravings, superstitious drugs, precious by-products, or simply by clearing the land. Crops (Does that include legumes for plant-based “meat”?) and livestock, as well as developments for a growing population, pose challenges for Vow and its investors. The question is, should we produce protein that everyone can afford, or should we supply food? The thrill and high profit margins of eating laboratory-grown meat that is the product of extinct animals, not just dead animals.
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Here’s a video of mammoth meatballs:
