Bill Gates Backed Startup Is Using CRISPR to Grow Lab Meat

You already knew about lab-grown meats, which are grown from animal cells instead of in a whole animal. And you probably know about CRISPR, the technology that lets scientists edit DNA with relative ease. Now, Business Insider reports, at least two startups are trying to combine lab grown meats and CRISPR to invent the next generation of lab-grown meat — and it could lead to futuristic new frontiers in sustainable eating. BI reporters spotted a pair of patents by Memphis Meats, a lab-grown meat outfit that’s gotten backing from tech luminaries including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, that would “create real chicken and beef tissue” using CRISPR, according to the magazine. “One application is to manufacture skeletal muscle for dietary consumption using cells from the poultry species Gallus gallus; another is from the livestock species Bos taurus,” reads one Memphis Meats patent dug up by BI...But the promise of gene-edited lab meat is enormous, according to BI. For one thing, it could possibly eliminate the need for “fetal bovine serum,” a nutrient-rich mixture made from the blood of slaughtered cows that scientists currently use to nourish lab-grown meats — which would be a big step toward the dinners plates of animal rights advocates...MORE