Scalable production of bioengineered fur products

该项目旨在开发一种可扩展的生物工艺，可以在合成皮肤支持类似物（SSSA）中培养挤出毛发状结构的细胞，以生产作为先进生物材料的非动物毛皮产品。为了未来非动物毛皮产品的安全性和可追溯性，该项目还旨在开发新方法，将加密的条形码序列插入用于生成生物合成毛皮的转基因细胞的基因组中。该项目将通过移植来自其他生物体的代谢途径，探索生物合成毛皮的可持续染色/着色，从而解决英国工程和物理科学委员会 (EPSRC) 合成生物学的研究主题。由于对道德标准、环境影响和虐待动物的担忧，非动物生物合成毛皮有可能将毛皮服装引入或重新引入目前不采用传统毛皮的市场。该学生奖学金旨在绘制结合 3D 生物打印、合成生物学和生物制造的设计空间，为无动物面料建立大批量、低成本的生物制造平台。从该项目中获得的知识将支持非动物毛皮产品的生产，作为时尚行业的革命性新材料。该项目的最终目标是朝着生物制造技术迈出重要一步，该技术将在未来取代传统的动物毛皮生产。预计组织工程领域的医疗保健技术将与 EPSRC 研究主题存在一些间接重叠。传统的毛皮养殖具有许多主要的不良特征，所有这些都是导致其在世界许多国家（包括英国和大多数欧洲国家）被取缔的原因。毛皮养殖的不良特征包括：i) 在生活条件和回收毛皮的方法方面残酷对待为毛皮而生长的动物；ii) 毛皮养殖在处理毛皮和染色等过程中的碳足迹方面的可持续性；iii) 作为入侵物种逃离毛皮养殖场的动物对生态的影响；iv) 集约化畜牧业作为人畜共患疾病（例如 COVID-19 全球大流行）的潜在驱动因素的影响以及随之而来的全球不确定性。 EPSRC 与本研究相关的研究领域包括：- 制造技术- 医疗保健技术- 全球不确定性- 合成生物学- 医疗保健技术- 制造未来- 生物材料和组织工程

The project aims to develop a scalable bioprocess whereby cells that extrude hair-like structures can be cultivated within a synthetic skin support analogue (SSSA) for the production of animal-free fur products as an advanced biomaterial. For safety and traceability of future animal-free fur products, the project also aims to develop novel approaches to inserting encrypted barcode sequences within the genome of the genetically modified cells used to generate biosynthetic fur pelts. This project will address the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Council (EPSRC) research theme of synthetic biology by exploring sustainable dyeing/ colouration of the biosynthetic fur pelts will via porting metabolic pathways from other organisms. Animal-free biosynthetic fur has the potential to introduce, or re-introduce, fur garments into markets that currently would not feature conventional fur due to concerns regarding ethical standards, environmental impacts and animal cruelty. This studentship aims to map the design space for combining 3D bioprinting, synthetic biology and biomanufacturing to establish high volume, low cost biofabrication platforms for animal-free fabrics. Knowledge gained from this project will underpin the production of animal-free fur pelt products as a revolutionary new material for the fashion industry. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish major steps toward a biomanufacturing technology that will in future supplant conventional, animal-based fur production. It is anticipated that there will be some indirect overlap with EPSRC research themes of healthcare technologies in the field of tissue engineering. Conventional fur farming comes with a number of major undesirable features, all of which have been drivers behind it being outlawed on many countries worldwide, including the United Kingdom and the majority of countries in Europe. Undesirable features of fur farming include i) the cruel treatment of animals grown for their fur in terms of their living conditions and the methods used to recover pelts, ii) the sustainability of the fur farming with respect to the carbon footprint for processes such as curing and dying pelts, iii) the ecological impacts of animals that escape from fur farms as invasive species iv) the impacts of intense animal farming as a potential driver of zoonotic disease such as the COVID-19 global pandemic and the ensuing global uncertainty. The EPSRC research areas relevant to this research are:- Manufacturing technologies- Healthcare technologies- Global uncertainties- Synthetic Biology- Healthcare technologies- Manufacturing the future- Biomaterials and tissue engineering