Materials play a crucial role in our daily lives. They're used to build our homes, manufacture our electronics and create our clothing. 

However, the use of materials and their manufacturing methods have become unsustainable, with serious consequences for the environment and society. As the global population surges towards 8 billion people and beyond, our demand for materials is skyrocketing. 

Scientists across academia and industry are working to redefine the way we produce materials to ensure sustainability and reduce the impact of humanity on the planet. 

With advancements in technology and an ever growing demand for sustainable templates, the past decade has given birth to a range of biotech startups that dream to provide sustainable alternatives to every material we encounter in our daily lives and disrupt manufacturing methods that have existed for hundreds of years across a range of areas, from clothing to construction. 

One field on the verge of disruption is the leather industry. Let's dive deeper into the process of leather production and explore how innovative  startups like VitroLabs are changing the game. 

Firstly, let's look at where leather comes from. Today, approximately ⅔ of leather originates from cows as a byproduct of the meat industry, with the rest coming from sheep, goat and pig leather. Following skin removal and cleaning, tanning is carried out - a process by which the skin is coloured, made more durable and less likely to decompose through restructuring protein structures. 

Not only is this process unethical and unsustainable, with over 2 billion animals killed per year for their skins, it's also environmentally damaging - the chemicals used in the tanning process are toxic, often affecting communities in close proximity to tanneries. Not to mention the impact of the cattle industry in general, which produces as much greenhouse gas as the United States. 

So what can we do instead? How possible is it to produce durable leather in a process that is scalable, sustainable and ethical? 

Over the years, many alternative leather products have been created, often from plant-based sources. From apples and grapes to mushrooms and cactus, there's no end to the range of fruit, vegetables and plants being used to produce new alternative leathers.  

Bolt Threads are one of the companies disrupting this space. Partnered with Adidas, they're providing some of the largest companies with the materials to make eco-friendly products.   Their product Mylo ™  is a mycelium-based alternative to leather that can be produced with a fraction of the energy used in traditional methods.

What is Mycelium and how closely can it replicate real leather? A mycelium is a network of threads, originating from a single fungal spore. They're vital to the soil, responsible for breaking down organic materials into materials that can be reused in the ecosystem. They also have a deep symbiotic relationship with plants and are an important food source for insects. 

Mycelium can be grown to intertwine so densely to make a material with the strength, durability and performance comparable with traditional leather. 

One of the problems with mycelium is its unpredictability, its growth process being difficult to control. The outcome is a material that varies in tensile strength, thickness and breathability. 

What if we could produce the real leather, from animal cells, in a sustainable way?

Introducing VitroLabs. Based in San Francisco and backed by luxury group Kering, VitroLabs are leading the way in the cultivated leather industry as the first start-up to bring it to large scale - starting from animal cells. 

“Our cultivated animal leather preserves the biological characteristics that the industry, craftsmen, and consumers know and love about leather, while eliminating the most environmentally and ethically detrimental aspects of the conventional leather manufacturing process associated with its sourcing.” Ingvar Helgason, CEO of VitroLabs

How do they develop such a material sustainably? The process involves only a one-time collection, without the need for animal slaughter, from which it is then grown in bioreactors into tissue that replicates the complex durable and luxurious composition of traditional hides. 

Bioreactors are tanks in which cells are grown under controlled and sterile conditions to produce large quantities of desired product. We've used them for years for many applications - from the vaccines we take to the beer we drink. They contain a myriad of sensors which help us monitor and maintain the conditions optimal to the production of the product we want. 

The entire process takes approximately two weeks, far less than the time it takes to manufacture conventional leather when you account for the time needed to raise animals. 

Bring your materials to market 10x faster with seal

After 100s of conversations with bio-based materials startups around the globe, we regularly hear of two main hurdles slowing down launch to market:

1. Manufacturing scalability: how do we produce our material at a low cost, whilst ensuring a product that is consistent in quality and comparable, if not better performing, than existing alternatives?
2. Regulatory hurdles: with strict regulatory requirements, startups need to navigate complex regulatory pathways and gain the necessary approvals. 

seal provides an integrated system to bring innovations to life - from R&D through to manufacturing, quality and product launch. 

Integrating your entire pipeline and ensuring process traceability is vital in: 

(i) Overcoming regulatory hurdles - as the system of record, every action and data point is traceable and connected. Easily find out who input a data point, who performed a task, which entities were used where, and so on. Prepare for an audit in a fraction of the time.

(ii) Instantly identifying process bottlenecks - do you know what's causing sub-par growth in your bioreactors? - Is there a fault with the bioreactor you're using? Is the specific lot of media you've received from your supplier performing worse than expected? Are there issues with the cells you're growing? By integrating your entities with your experimental workflows, you can gain instant insights to the performance of any entity - allowing you to make the changes that drive your team forward and faster. 

Working on biomaterials and looking to bring your process to the cloud? Contact our team to see how we can help.

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