Case Study: Boston College advances lab-grown meat research with MATLAB

Biomedically Engineered Spinach Transforms Lab-Grown Meat

MathWorks worked with Boston College to address a challenge in the emerging field of cellular agriculture. Researchers needed a way to thoroughly analyze the alignment of bovine cells grown on spinach leaf scaffolds, a critical factor for replicating the taste and texture of real meat. Manually quantifying this complex cellular data was deemed too time-consuming and prone to human error.

The solution involved using MATLAB alongside the CircStat toolbox for automated image processing and circular statistics analysis. This MathWorks software enabled the team to efficiently process large datasets, quantify cell alignment, and generate visualizations. The results confirmed that the spinach scaffold performed as well as traditional methods, successfully promoting cell growth and, crucially, the natural alignment necessary for a realistic meat texture. The automated process was completed in under an hour, saving significant time and increasing analytical accuracy.

Boston College

Glenn Gaudette

Professor of Engineering