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University of Missouri researchers create pork in the lab

University of Missouri researchers have created pork flesh in the laboratory. The University’s Dr. Michael Roberts says they used embryonic stem cells from pigs. He worked with a University of Maryland researcher – and while difficult, he says, they achieved the creation of skeletal muscle, “We also did it very efficiently – within eight days. We were able to show that the cells that were produced by using a whole series of growth factors and chemicals, pharmaceuticals, that we could get muscles.”

Roberts tells Brownfield he wasn’t on board, at first, because of the idea of replacing farm raised pork, “There is some interest, particularly in Europe, in producing meat that has not seen an animal and the goal is to reduce animal welfare concerns.”

But, Roberts says, the lab created pork muscle has great value in regenerative medicine, such as skin grafting.