In a major leap for the future of lab-grown meat, researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a new bioreactor that mimics a circulatory system to grow realistic cuts of chicken muscle—no feathers, no beaks, and no farms required.
Their system, described in the journal Trends in Biotechnology, successfully produced over 10 grams of structured chicken meat, potentially bringing the dream of whole-cut cultured meat one step closer to our dinner plates.
“Our study presents a scalable, top-down strategy for producing whole-cut cultured meat using a perfusable hollow fiber bioreactor,” senior author Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, said in a recent statement. “This system enables cell distribution, alignment, contractility, and improved food-related properties.”
Challenging Chicken Texture with Fibers
Oxygen and nutrient delivery are one of the biggest hurdles in growing lab-made meat. In living organisms, blood vessels carry these essentials throughout tissues. But diffusion alone isn’t enough in artificial environments, especially for thicker cuts. Without a “circulatory system,” lab-grown tissues often can’t grow thicker than 1 millimeter, which isn’t nearly enough for a juicy chicken breast.
To solve this, Takeuchi’s team turned to an unlikely tool: semipermeable hollow fibers—the same kind used in home water filters and dialysis machines.
“These fibers mimic blood vessels in their ability to deliver nutrients to the tissues,” noted Takeuchi. “It’s exciting to discover that these tiny fibers can also effectively help create artificial tissues and, possibly, whole organs in the future.”
The researchers built a Hollow Fiber Bioreactor (HFB) using an array of 50 fibers to grow centimeter-scale chicken muscle tissue. To scale things up, they employed robot-assisted assembly to construct a system with over 1,100 fibers, successfully producing more than 10 grams of cultured chicken meat using fibroblast cells, which help form connective tissue.
This method goes beyond the typical ground meat seen in most cultured products today and moves toward the texture and structure of traditional “whole-cut” meat.
“Cultured meat offers a sustainable, ethical alternative to conventional meat,” said Takeuchi. “However, replicating the texture and taste of whole-cut meat remains difficult. Our technology enables the production of structured meat with improved texture and flavor, potentially accelerating its commercial viability.”
Having Chicken During Bird Flu
This cultured meat breakthrough could have major implications for combating avian influenza, or bird flu, a growing global concern. Traditional poultry farming environments, where animals are raised in close quarters, create ideal conditions for viruses like H5N1 to spread and mutate. Outbreaks not only threaten animal and human health but also lead to massive culls, economic losses, and disruptions to the food supply chain.
As bird flu outbreaks become more frequent and severe, technologies like this bioreactor, which creates chicken without real chicken, could help future-proof our food systems against biological and economic shocks.
This technology also has big implications for other fields, not just agriculture.
“This system offers a practical alternative to vascular-based methods and may impact not only food production but also regenerative medicine, drug testing, and biohybrid robotics,” Takeuchi noted.
In other words, the same system used to grow chicken meat could one day help grow functional tissues for human transplants, test new drugs in artificial organs, or even serve as living muscle for soft robots.
Improving the Setup
Even with this success, there’s more work to be done. Takeuchi points to several challenges, such as improving oxygen delivery for even larger tissue constructs, automating the removal of the hollow fibers after tissue growth, and using food-safe or even edible materials for the bioreactor components.
“We overcame the challenge of achieving perfusion across thick tissues by arranging hollow fibers with microscale precision,” he said. “Remaining challenges include improving oxygen delivery in larger tissues, automating fiber removal, and transitioning to food-safe materials.”
As solutions, Takeuchi suggests integrating artificial oxygen carriers—essentially stand-ins for red blood cells—and developing edible or recyclable fibers that simplify the production process.
While we’re still some time away from ordering a cultured chicken cutlet at the grocery store, this new circulatory-style bioreactor brings that future closer.
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is a freelance science journalist and staff writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with her on BlueSky or contact her via email at kenna@thedebrief.org