Scalable production of bioengineered fur products

该项目旨在开发一种可扩展的生物工艺，通过该工艺，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无动物毛皮产品。为了未来无动物毛皮产品的安全性和可追溯性，该项目还旨在开发新的方法，在用于生产生物合成毛皮的转基因细胞的基因组中插入加密的条形码序列。该项目将针对英国工程和物理科学理事会(EPSRC)合成生物学的研究主题，探索生物合成毛皮的可持续染色/着色，将通过从其他生物体转移新陈代谢途径。由于对道德标准、环境影响和动物虐待的担忧，无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以传统毛皮为特色的市场。该项目旨在规划将3D生物打印、合成生物学和生物制造相结合的设计空间，以建立大容量、低成本的无动物织物生物制造平台。从这个项目中获得的知识将支持无动物毛皮产品的生产，作为时尚业的一种革命性的新材料。该项目的最终目标是朝着生物制造技术迈出重要的一步，该技术将在未来取代传统的动物性毛皮生产。预计将与EPSRC在组织工程领域的医疗保健技术研究主题有一些间接重叠。传统的毛皮养殖伴随着许多不受欢迎的主要特征，所有这些都是全球许多国家宣布其为非法的幕后推手，包括英国和欧洲大多数国家。毛皮养殖业的不良特征包括：i)残酷对待为获取毛皮而种植的动物的生存条件和回收毛皮的方法；ii)毛皮养殖业在固化和处理毛皮等过程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的生态影响；iv)集约化动物养殖业作为人畜共患病的潜在驱动因素的影响，例如新冠肺炎全球大流行和随之而来的全球不确定性。与这项研究相关的EPSRC研究领域是：-制造技术-医疗技术-全球不确定性-合成生物学-医疗技术-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