The Science of Alt Protein: Adipocyte bioprinting to improve the flavor of cultivated meat products

Webinar description

Cultured meat products that have the texture, flavor, and familiarity of conventional meat products are critical to consumer acceptance. Bioprinting can re-create the three-dimensional tissue structures of animal steaks, especially with regard to the distribution of intramuscular fat. However, bioprinting lipid-laden adipocytes has remained a challenge due to their high buoyancy, fragility under shear stress, and large size (on the order of 20-300 microns). To circumvent the challenges of printing mature adipocytes, many groups have instead printed stem cells and focused on post-printing differentiation. However, this strategy has its own challenges, as cells will not reach full maturity (characterized as a single unilocular lipid droplet), and co-differentiation of tissues with multiple cell types (i.e. skeletal muscle) is not currently feasible. Dr. Abbott and her team are focusing on 3D printing adipocytes into the intramuscular space to establish tissue structures more similar to a steak. This will be important for recreating tissue flavor and texture, with the ultimate goal of improving consumer acceptance.