LONDON: BSF, a biotech company that owns tissue engineering firms 3DBT and Kerato, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Maison Amelie Pichard, a fashion company that uses eco-friendly materials, to develop and sell fashion accessories that incorporate lab-grown leather.

This is the first time that real lab-grown leather, which mimics the structure of traditional leather without harming animals or the environment, has been produced for the fashion industry. The leather is grown in a laboratory using cells from animal skin, without the need for plant-based scaffolds.

Amelie Pichard, the founder and creative director of the fashion company, said that she was inspired by the farming world of the past and that using lab-grown leather represented “technology at the service of good innovation”. She added that she was delighted to create a bridge between innovation and tradition with this project.

Che Connon, the managing director of BSF Enterprise and CEO of 3DBT, said that he was thrilled to collaborate with a company that had led the way in environmentally friendly fashion. He said that using lab-grown leather was an inevitable next step for the fashion industry to create a sustainable future and that he was excited to be the first to do so.

BSF expects to establish its lab-grown leather offering as a separate subsidiary company, Lab-Grown Leather Limited, in the second half of 2024. This will enable the scaling up of the development and sales of its animal skin products to meet the huge market demand. The leather goods market was worth $253 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $405 billion by 2030.

BSF is also building a leather tanning capability within its laboratory at Newcastle. It will provide more details on this and other partnerships and commercial opportunities in due course.

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