Posts tagged biotech

Biotech firm creates fake rhino horn to reduce poaching

synthbio, fabbing, 3d priting, biotech, rhino, superstition, marketing

Pembient, based in San Francisco uses keratin – a type of fibrous protein – and rhino DNA to produce a dried powder which is then 3D printed into synthetic rhino horns which is genetically and spectrographically similar to original rhino horns.The company plans to release a beer brewed with the synthetic horn later this year in the Chinese market. The Chinese and Vietnamese rhino horn craze has caused an unprecedented surge in rhino poaching throughout Africa and Asia bringing the animal to the brink of extinction. In South Africa, home to 80 percent of Africa’s rhino population, 1,215 rhinos were killed in 2014.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/environment/biotech-firm-creates-fake-rhino-horn-to-help-save-real-rhinos/article/436325

Engineering the $325,000 In-Vitro Burger

meat, tissue culture, food, biotech, biology

The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world — including potential sources of research funds — that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the–325000-in-vitro-burger.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1368418364–9BbUl9iWpNavnGGiS9Hqxg&