It is fish that has never been “caught” – the plate that Diana Marques is holding contains four sea bass fillets created in a laboratory using 3D bioprinting, a world-first feat achieved by researchers from the Instituto Superior Técnico in a laboratory at the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB), located at the Oeiras hub.
It was this PhD student in Bioengineering at iBB who came up with the idea, in 2019, of making sushi in a laboratory, as part of a project for the Entrepreneurship course unit.
Years later, the development of the initiative has already welcomed master's theses (including Diana's master's degree) and doctoral theses and has a team that, from four researchers in 2020, has grown to around 15 – and the results are there for all to see, on display for the world to see.
“The last two years have been wonderful in terms of progress”, reports Frederico Ferreira, professor at Técnico and researcher at iBB who has led the projects associated with this research – as was the case of Algae2Fish, funded with 215 thousand euros in 2022 by the non-governmental organization Good Food Institute.
Starting by making a sashimi (fish served thinly cut) in the first attempts, researchers are now able to produce fillets that reach six centimeters in thickness, already having the characteristic texture of the fish.
And it's not just the texture that evokes 'conventional' fish – depending on the microalgae selected for the inks used in the bioprinter, it is possible to produce the desired smell, having the sea or fishy odor that they are looking for.
“Sometimes, when you enter the laboratory, it already smells like fish; some people even joke, saying that we are in a fish market,” says the researcher.
The advancement of scientific research is joined by another motivation – environmentally, the production of fish and meat in a laboratory environment could prove to be a more ecological alternative to the livestock and fishing industries. Frederico Ferreira even speaks of a 'fourth agricultural revolution'.
“People will have to eat a little more vegetables, they will have to eat a little less animal protein and they will probably have to look for other animal proteins, and this is where we come in: we have the role of providing people with animal protein that does not sacrifice animals and that has a smaller environmental impact”, explains the professor.
From cell to plate via printer
The laboratory production process avoids the more polluting steps traditionally associated with 'conventional' processes for obtaining animal protein. "We start with cells, usually stem cells, which have the potential to differentiate into the types of cells present in meat and fish, such as muscle cells and fat cells," explains Diana Marques, who highlights that these cells are obtained without animal suffering, one of the motivations for developing her research in this area.
“Next comes the food processing step – we have a biomass, a huge set of cells, and we can put them all together and create simple products like a goldfish or a nugget. If we want to make a more structured product – and if we apply techniques like 3D bioprinting – we can make a fish fillet or a steak,” continues the researcher.
For this 3D bioprinting, two 'ingredients' are essential – a bioprinter capable of completing the task and bioinks suitable for human consumption. The latter were developed by Diana during her master's thesis and the bioprinter is the result of the work of Afonso Gusmão, a PhD student at Técnico and researcher at iBB who, during his master's thesis, adapted a commercial 3D printer for use in this project.
“My goal is to test the various inks that have been developed – each one has different parameters such as viscosity and printing temperature than the previous one,” explains Afonso. From microplastics, the printer now operates with bioinks containing sea bass cells, some for muscle material and others for the fat naturally present in fillets of this fish.
As a PhD researcher, the student is now developing bioreactors within which cell cultures are exposed to small electric shocks, stimulating them to align themselves along one direction (electrospinning or electrospinning, in the English term).
“If we are creating these fibers, we can be offering textures and structure to the thread that we would not be able to achieve otherwise,” he comments, an aspect that can have a positive impact on the consumer experience.
Once the differentiation between muscle and fat cells has been made in the cell culture, everything is ready to incorporate them into the respective bioinks that, inserted into the bioprinter syringes, will be the basis for the production of the fillet. Once served and plated, the next step for this lab-produced food depends on the evolution of legislation – and the appetites of those who might end up buying it.
Next steps – “being able to sell” and “wanting to buy”
“We live in a democracy and people are free to eat whatever they want – far be it from us to change that,” explains Frederico Ferreira. “We have to ‘educate’ people and create high-quality products so that they want to include this food in their diet,” he explains.
Based on the so-called 'adoption curve', which reflects the pace at which people adopt a new product or concept, the professor says that “in five years [this concept] could start to gain expression in the market”.
To achieve this, we must wait for developments not only in technical terms, but also in European legislation. In countries such as Singapore and the United States, the introduction of this type of cultivated food onto the market has already been approved, albeit only for animal feed.
“Currently, in Europe, public tasting is not permitted, except in the Netherlands; more countries need to pass laws that allow us to safely offer this to consumers”, explains the iBB researcher, who argues that “for clarity and transparency for consumers, it is important that they can taste the product”.
“On the part of the States, this needs to be a national priority; they need to write in their national plans that we can and should innovate in this area”, he adds, recalling that countries like China have already done so.
For now, the team has a clear goal in mind – a collaboration with the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), in which the first tests of these prototypes will be carried out. A panel qualified in the characterization and testing of fish (usually to make comparisons between deep-sea and aquaculture fish) will test these printed fillets.
“We now need a sustainable way of producing meat and fish,” says Diana Marques – “that is our first step.” Frederico Ferreira reinforces the idea. “We are going to produce animal tissue for consumption so that we can meet the [food] needs we will have in the coming decades in a more sustainable way.”
Photos: Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB)/IST
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