Cultured meat (a.k.a. in vitro meat, lab-grown meat, cell-based meat...) is meat produced by culturing animal cells. Unlike the commonly known soy protein (vegetable protein), it is characterized by simulating not only the appearance but also all parts that determine the quality of meat, such as taste and nutritional content. Recently, researchers have been developing various types of cultured meat, from scaffolds (using plant proteins and natural polymers) to cell sheets or powder to mimic the characteristics of real meat.

   Unlike scaffolds in tissue engineering, cultured meat scaffolds are characterized by the need to be edible, have cell differentiation, and have meat-like properties. In addition, for the commercialization of cultured meat, 1. cost-down, 2. cell differentiation, and 3. large-scale production are key issues to be resolved, and our group is conducting research on various concepts of cultured meat to solve these issues.