Former cardiologist hopes to revolutionize food industry with lab-grown meat
When Uma Valeti, MD, was a cardiology fellow at the Mayo Clinic in the mid-2000s, he used stem cells to repair heart muscle following cardiac arrest. That experience led to an idea: if stem cells could generate heart muscle, why couldn’t they do the same for dietary meat?
Valeti left academia to co-find Memphis Meats, which expects to have a product in stores by 2021, according to an article in Inc. Magazine. The goal is to produce healthier food at cheaper costs while eliminating animal deaths and food-borne illnesses related to slaughterhouse production.
Memphis Meats has hosted samplings of their products, but for now, each pound of meat costs thousands of dollars to make.
"It's not crazy to think you might one day be able to brew meat at $2 per pound, $1 per pound," Ryan Bethencourt, an investor in the company, told Inc. "At that point, we can replace pretty much all industrial meat. In 20 years, I think people will look at growing and killing an animal as bizarre."
Valeti told Inc. he is satisfied with his career switch and is committed to becoming a global leader in cultured meat.
"If I continued as a cardiologist, maybe I would save 2,000 or 3,000 lives over the next 30 years," he said. "But if I focus on this, I have the potential to save billions of human lives and trillions of animal lives."
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Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.