What may be the world鈥檚 first piece of lab-grown wood isn鈥檛 quite big enough to qualify as a woodchip 鈥� it鈥檚 more like a splinter. But the tiny fragment could be a big step towards reducing the number of trees chopped down to meet our lumber demands, if it holds up to the task.
鈥淎s far as we know, our early prototype is the first piece of interconnected wood-like tissue ever produced from cell culture,鈥� says at start-up New Dawn Bio.
What they call 鈥渃ultured wood鈥� is the arboreal equivalent of lab-grown meat. By growing tree cells in giant vats fed with sugar, the company aims to produce wood more efficiently and with a lower environmental impact than cutting down and processing actual trees.
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The company鈥檚 first piece of material was made using stem cells from Arabidopsis thaliana, a small mustard-like plant commonly used in laboratory studies. The piece of material, which Clement describes as dark brown, is only about an eighth of the size of a postage stamp. The future goal, however, is to use stem cells from different tree species and to produce larger pieces of wood, such as an entire tabletop or a chair.
Clement says the team鈥檚 approach involves two main stages. First, plant stem cells are grown in sugar water, enabling them to grow faster than they would in a tree. Then, they are exposed to chemical or genetic cues to differentiate into fibre cells filled with cellulose 鈥� the primary component of plant cells 鈥� or vessel cells, which help transport water and minerals throughout the tissue. Together, these are the main structural components of wood.
Finally, when these cells 鈥渂ecome strong and adhere to each other鈥�, they are combined to form any shape, says Clement. The team is now working on finding the best growing conditions for stem cells from different tropical hardwood species, such as teak.
Eventually, the team aims to use these cells to replicate wood from tropical hardwood trees that are threatened by illegal logging. Clement says focusing on these rare species means cultured wood could displace harmful logging with relatively small-scale production. Lab-grown wood would be expensive, but it could still compete with costly wood from rare trees. Cultured wood could also enable precise control of the material鈥檚 properties, such as making it more absorbent, stronger or changing the orientation of its grain.
This isn鈥檛 the first time scientists have tried to create cultured wood. Researchers previously using plant stem cells to print wood-like material. However, the team was never able to produce material with the same mechanical properties as actual wood, says at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It had the right combination of ingredients, but it was never clear whether the cells were latching together as they do in a real plant, he says. 鈥淭he million-dollar question is whether [the cells] connect. Are they just lumped together, or are they shaking hands?鈥�
Clement says the cells are connected, but declined to share details about how. He says the mechanical properties of the lab-grown wood don鈥檛 yet match that of wood from trees.
Vel谩squez-Garc铆a says it would be 鈥渂ig鈥� if New Dawn Bio has solved this problem, but without more information on the mechanical properties of their first splinter, it is impossible to judge whether they have. 鈥淏ased on what I have seen, probably not,鈥� he says.
