[ExI] Fame meat and Robert Bradbury

[ablainey at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com>


I will be working with tissue engineering topics more closely soon, so I 
have a chance to implement some research strategies; harvesting some of 
the research from burn victim regenerative tissue research, plus 
Yamanaka iPS cell culturing techniques, plus the 142 different types of 
cell differentiation protocols that we know now, well, things can go 
pretty well. I think the tough part is going to be scaffolding and 
distributing nutrients to meat growing in a tank, this is known as the 
vascularization issue.


Bryan, I have been toying with the idea of red meat production for?nearly a decade?after I thought of it for a sub plot?in a never to be finished?novel.
Along with multistory crop factories powered by on sight nuclear plants which supplied both power and hot water. Seemingly Endless conveyors
of bountifully crops, inperceivably moving toward the distant robotic processors. 
Anyhoooo, from my notes and memory the concept I came up with for the meat production was a gravity or pull fed extrusion process. 
The extrusion head had multiple uniformly spaced holes mostly for muscle fibre, but also inter spaced with holes for vascular tubes. The idea was 
that above the head, stem cells which had been differentiated were fed into the corresponding holes where they?bound to the ends of rough-ended?titanium pins. These pins were attached to a puller plate which would be used to extrude the cells. The bores of the holes in the head being lined with Teflon to stop the cell adhering. 
The puller plate would be slowly extended out of the head, so that more cells would adhere to the last giving fibres of muscle. The vascular 
tubes would be much larger diameter with a stationary central mandrel tube which has two functions. the first is to ensure that the vascular extrusion 
is a tube, just like creating plastic pipe. the second function would be to feed nutrients in an oxygenated cultured blood into the centre of the newly
created artificial artery. This blood?being grown in artificial bone marrow units and having passed through a heart/lung type machine.
Once the extrusion is long enough, the pins of the puller plate are removed from the arterial tubes to give a flow through path back to the heart lung
machine.
As the artificial muscle exits the head and the blood circulation is achieved.?The artificial muscle?It is inside a liquid filled tube, which also provides 
nutrients and oxygen. The puller is then rotated to imply a twist on the muscle. This brings the fibres and arteries in contact and cell adhesion occurs.

Hopefully the end result is a long extruded artificial muscle. As this was for a piece of fiction, I took liberties with things like muscle fibre length and growth, 
no explanation of lymphatic systems or anything remotely too complex. I also included some extra's like fat cells in the nutrient liquid near the end of the production tube to?build up?a layer of fat and neurons which made the mass 'ripple with rhythmic contractions, like a thousand foot long, Skinless snake'. nice! ;o)

Perhaps I will see this unholy monster on my dinner plate in a few years? yummy. 
Its a shame it will probably ensure the extinction of cattle.
Alex

P.S, if anyone makes a working machine based on the above, I would like shares in the company and a taste of the first steak please ! LOL
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