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While lab-grown meat is a concept many are still wrapping their palates around, the techniques used to make it are a common feature of basic biology research and drug development: cell cultures.

You’ve likely seen cell cultures before – they’re often depicted as Petri dishes coated with a gummy-looking layer of gel called agar, infused with the nutrients necessary for cells to grow. Scientists use cell cultures to run a wide variety of experiments to understand how cells respond to different exposures, such as pathogens or chemical compounds.

One of the biggest challenges lab-grown meat faces, however, is taking these techniques up to scale. Although the USDA has given the green light to the first cell-cultured chicken meat, growing enough cells to fill grocery shelves will require much more technical capacity than even pharmaceutical-grade instruments can provide.

André O. Hudson, biochemistry professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, explains the process of creating cell-cultured meat and why the industry still has some ways to go before it can meet the meat needs of society.

Vivian Lam

Associate Health and Biomedicine Editor
Cell cultures are often grown in petri dishes. Wladimir Bulgar/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Lab-grown meat techniques aren’t new – cell cultures are common tools in science, but bringing them up to scale to meet society’s demand for meat will require further development

André O. Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology

Cell cultures are common tools in biology and drug development. Bringing them up to scale to meet the meat needs of societies will require further development.

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