Cultured Lamb
Growing cultured lamb muscle
Vicky Andriessen
University of Auckland, New Zealand
cell
COMPLETED
Overview
Who: Vicky Andriessen, masters student in biomedical engineering
When: 2020 – 2021
Institutes: University of Auckland, New Zealand
Supervisors: Laura Domigan, senior lecturer of engineering at the University of Auckland
Summary
Vicky is trying to grow cultured lamb muscle. Ovine (lamb) cells have been shown to be promising for in vitro culture, but have not been widely used in cellular agriculture. Using cells isolated from New Zealand sheep – notoriously high-quality meat – Vicky will be testing their capability to grow into 3D muscle structures.
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- Images of Vicky’s ovine cells grown in culture. DAPI (blue) shows the cell nuclei, and myosin (green) is a protein found in muscle cells – confirming the cells have muscle properties. 🥩 Scalebar: 200μm
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- 3D muscle tissues made with a mouse cell line (C2C12, left) and Vicky’s ovine cells (right). Scalebar: 1mm
Why This Matters
New Zealand lamb is a popular global commodity, accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in exports every year. Since ovine cells are good candidates for 3D cell culture, cultured lamb meat could be an easy cell ag product to make with a lot of commercial interest.
Outcomes
Vicky successfully isolated and cultured ovine cells. In addition, she investigated the properties of these cells and their ability to form muscle fibers. Her work concluded that ovine is an eligible cell source for cultured meat and lays the groundwork for continued research into cultured lamb.
The results of Vicky’s work is published in her master’s thesis, The suitability of ovine as a cell source for cultured meat applications.
More from Vicky Andriessen
Featured
December 2020
Announcing New Harvest’s 2020 Grantees, AnnouncementPublications
Creating an infrastructure for cultured meat
Advances in cultured meat technology (Book), 2023
