The Don State Technical University (DSTU) has presented an innovative technology for creating meat products using 3D bioprinting. The development will allow producing artificial meat without the need to slaughter animals and "program" its composition.
The process of producing artificial meat begins with obtaining cells from an animal donor through a biopsy. These cells are then cultured in the laboratory, multiplying and forming a cell culture.
The resulting mass can be used for 3D printing of meat products that are practically indistinguishable in taste from natural meat. One donor can provide a much larger volume of meat than traditional slaughter.
The technology is applicable to cells of any domesticated animal. In the future, our development could reduce the cost of cultivated meat production by 20–30% through automation and process optimization.
To create artificial meat, scientists used cells from a domestic European rabbit, grown from stem cells and fibroblasts.
We have developed an algorithm that accurately identifies and counts lipoblasts, fibroblasts, and myogenic cells in cultures with 92 percent accuracy, reducing analysis time from 15–20 minutes with manual counting to a few seconds with automated counting. These cells determine the nutritional value of the product.
The meat product made from sodium alginate, sunflower protein, and stem cells was printed on a modified 3D printer with a unique printing head developed at DSTU.
The tool for counting cells of different classes is planned to be modified and made available to all Russian laboratories.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that Belarusians invented a unique technology for 3D printing of meat products, which has no analogues in the world.
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