Australian Company Unveils Lab-Grown Meatball Made From Woolly Mammoth

Australian synthetic meat producer Vow has created a meatball made from the genetic material of the woolly mammoth, using synthesized proteins from the mammoth genome. The unveiling of the mammoth meatball was part of the company’s mission to address climate change using lab-grown meat. The meatball was unveiled at Amsterdam’s NEMO science museum on Tuesday.

Ernst Wolvetang, a lead researcher at the University of Queensland’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering, aided in creating the mammoth meatball. He synthesized mammoth muscle tissue using DNA sequences for myoglobin and filled gaps in the genetic material with DNA from the African elephant, a close relative of mammoths. The DNA was then implanted into myoblasts, which are precursors to muscle cells from a sheep. The result produced roughly 20 billion cells, which was enough to make 400 grams of mammoth meat.

While the project originally sought to create a chicken nugget out of meat from the Dodo bird, they discovered that the necessary DNA sequences did not exist. The mammoth meatball promotes a message concerning the dangers of climate change. Vow co-founder Tim Noakesmith explained, “We chose the woolly mammoth because it’s a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change.”

Although no one has tasted the mammoth meatball, Wolvetang said he could understand initial fears concerning the meat. Vow will work towards improving the meat’s palatability to obtain regulatory approval. Meanwhile, in the U.S., lab-grown meat is making headway with regulatory approval. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its first pre-market consultation for animal cell-cultured food products last November, including a synthetic chicken product developed by Upside Foods, though it still requires approval by the USDA.

Geltor is another example of fossilized fare synthesized from prehistoric DNA. In 2018, the company used DNA from a mastodon, a woolly mammoth relative, to create gelatine from collagen proteins, which were then used to make elephant-shaped gummy candies.