The 4th international conference on cultured meat was held in Maastricht, in the Netherlands between 2-4 December. Scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs were there to discuss tissue engineering, medium chemistry, bioreactor engineering, and other social science aspects. For those who missed the event, here are some highlights from the event.

Nathalie Rubio from New Harvest talked about her project on culturing insect muscle cells, in other words, insect meat. She believes it is a sustainable protein source, and it is nothing new, because cricket powder energy bar is already in the market. She finds insects nutritious, easy to handle and cheap.

She tried growing primary cells from caterpillars, as well as immortal fruit fly cells. Both of them were very adaptive to the adverse experimental environment. They were still alive after her long vacation!

At this stage she is happy with the way these cells grow, and her next step is to get them differentiated.

Who is hungry for some crunchy flies and chewy worms? Nathalie is more than happy to feed you!