Assoc. Prof. Julie Gold, Biological Physics, Dept. of Applied Physics at Chalmers brought up one of the most futuristic presentations at the seminar; "In vitro meat: Why and How" - Shall we use technology for in vitro meat production in the future?

Meat production in the future faces several challenges. One challenge is to be able to meet the increasing demand for meat, in particular in rapidly developing "third world" countries. Another is to make meat production environmentally sustainable. Meat production contributes considerably to overall greenhouse gases, and the raising of the animal accounts for almost all of this contribution. There is also a trend, in Sweden, as well as internationally, to eat more meat and cattles in the world have increased by a factor of four during the 1900 century. Growing our own meet could also be a way of controlling the content of vitamins and other substances.

Today, tissue engineering of human skeletal muscle for regenerative medicine purposes continues to advance at a steady pace. Tissue engineering and cell culturing techniques have brought about new possibilities for meat production. There are today some laboratories around the world developing techniques to grow animal cells and skeletal muscle in bioreactors in order to produce edible meat products. Therefore, there is hope that in the not-too-distant future, we will know how to grow muscle tissue of sufficient size and quantities to be a viable food source.

For more information about the speakers and abstracts, kindly visit www.goteborgbio.se or visit/contact Biomaterials Research Center at www.brc.org.gu.se