This project pioneers a sustainable and cruelty-free approach to leather production by integrating cutting-edge biotechnology, advanced cell culture techniques, and scalable manufacturing processes. Traditional leather manufacturing relies heavily on cattle ranching, contributing to significant environmental challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and water pollution, while also raising ethical concerns related to animal welfare. Our solution seeks to fundamentally transform this industry by developing lab-cultivated leather---an innovative material that offers the look, feel, and durability of premium leather without the negative environmental and ethical ramifications. At the heart of our approach are immortalized bovine fibroblast cell lines, engineered for robust growth and high-density collagen expression. Collagen, the primary structural protein in leather, is critical for replicating its strength, flexibility, and texture. By cultivating these cells under serum-free, suspension-adapted conditions, and optimizing their growth in bioreactors, we dramatically increase productivity and pave the way for economically viable, large-scale production. Our interdisciplinary team brings together cell biologists, bioengineers, material scientists, and commercial partners. Together, we focus on refining cell growth media, harnessing bioreactor technologies, and integrating novel scaffolds to support cell adhesion and collagen deposition. By testing various supplements and growth factors, we identify optimal formulations that enable consistent, high-quality collagen output. Meanwhile, our bioreactor experiments allow us to scale production from bench to industrial volumes, laying the groundwork for a thriving, globally competitive supply chain. Collaborations with respected industry partners and research institutes ensure that we integrate the latest scientific insights and innovative process improvements. By sharing best practices, advancing regulatory compliance frameworks, and maintaining robust quality assurance protocols, we position our cultivated leather as a trusted product for luxury brands, automotive manufacturers, and other industries embracing sustainable materials. Beyond immediate market applications, this project's innovations have far-reaching implications. The knowledge generated will influence a new era of biofabrication that can extend into diverse domains---ranging from sustainable textiles to biomedical applications---fostering economic growth and enabling a circular, low-carbon economy. Ultimately, this project aims to redefine how we produce materials of everyday value. By bridging scientific excellence, ethical commitment, and entrepreneurial vision, we unlock the potential of cultivated leather as a high-quality, sustainable alternative to conventional leather, meeting the global demand for responsible and innovative solutions.

This 18-month Industrial Research project will develop a discovery platform for novel recombinant growth-factors which are capable of reducing the costs of culture media used in cultivated meat production by orders of magnitude and therefore enabling cultivated-meat to achieve cost-parity with traditional meat. Project addresses key UK priorities in biomanufacturing; enabling reductions in CO2 (92%), land-use (90%) water (66%) and antibiotics (70% are used in animal agriculture) associated with traditional meat production methods. Technology is positioned to support UK cultivated meat sector in scaling to create 8,300 highly­ skilled roles by 2030(£2BN benefit to UK economy) reducing reliance on imports (£7.8BNp.a.)

Industrial livestock farming methods are associated with undesirable environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, high water/land usage, and animal welfare/ public health concerns such as overuse of antibiotics and zoonoses. The worldwide population is expected to reach 8 billion by 15/11/2022, and 10 billion by 2050\. Finite resources and increasing worldwide meat consumption create conditions for global food insecurity. Cost-effective, disruptive innovations in production technology for nutritional proteins are therefore required for the industrialization of meat alternatives. Such a shift to **cultivated meat** (**CM**) production will disrupt this highly valuable global industry ($467 billion for beef in 2021). CM is meat grown from animal stem cells in a bioreactor using tissue engineering approaches. Stem cells are differentiated into cell types found in meat such as muscle and fat in specialized nutrient-enriched cell culture medium containing **growth factor** (**GF**) proteins. These cells are combined with scaffolds to form meat products. Thus, CM is produced in a controlled environment without farming animals for food, mitigating many of the concerns associated with conventional farming. **However, economic feasibility and scale-up are major barriers to the adoption and public acceptance of CM.** **Key cost drivers** are the **GF components** of culture media. Existing GF protein production and separation methods (a critical purification step) are prohibitively expensive to transition from laboratory to commercial production scale. _Indeed, modelling studies show current CM production costs between $50,000-400,000USD per kg using the growth factor FGF-2, at a cost of $5,000/mg in a 20,000L bioreactor. Only by reducing FGF-2 to nominal costs can we approach commodity level prices of $2 per kg._ **Our vision is to target this bottleneck enabling massive scale-up of low-cost growth factor production for meat cultivation**. To generate low-cost GFs, we will deploy our plant-based GF bulk-expression platform, and combine with novel low-cost alternatives for bioseparation/purification. This is achieved using an inexpensive approach exploiting sustainable commercially-available industrial food-grade substrates. Pilot data has shown this is an effective method for purifying crude protein extracts with high recovery of biological activity. Significant cost reductions for GF production are envisaged, with profound commercial, economic, sustainability and environmental impacts.