Patrick Buchanan

I've followed cultivated meat for 5 years. I got a degree to enter the field, and to people reading this who have already listened to me for hours, thank you! I believe in a future without irresponsible damage to the environment, inhumane treatment of animals, or abandoning impoverished people around the world. We can do this using technology in an ethical manner, ensuring transparency and trust. This open-source research will be a small but important step towards that.

I've been a biochemistry fanatic for 8 years, and a chef for 7. I've always been worried about environmental and political crises, and luckily found a way to combine these in cultivated meat. I got a 2.1 in my BSc in biochemistry at the Uni of Bristol last year, specialising in developmental biology, the extracellular matrix, and serum free media. I'm now doing an MSc in stem cells and regeneration.

My first lab work was at the Francis Crick, where I worked with Holger Apitz to understand fruit fly vision. In four weeks, I identified a marker for reflex coordinating cells and discovered an unknown neuron subtype. I was a finalist in the U18s Big Bang competition and was asked to present my work at Imperial University and the Royal Society of Chemistry. This pushed me into the field of developmental biology.

I also presented at the RSC as part of an investigation into air pollution around schools. I worked to collect data on ozone and nitrates, proving that government environmental guidelines were being broken everywhere. This helped push me into finding a way to fight for environmental justice that didn’t rely on governments and policy.

Over the last year, I completed a literature review as part of my BSc that investigated the core fields relevant to cultivated meat, and their recent technological innovations. I believe this field will be the testbed for a huge range of research techniques that use large scale cell culture, like organ transplants and the end of animal testing.

September 2022