Speaker
Description
Leather has long been valued for its aesthetic appeal and performance, serving humanity for centuries. However, traditional leather production places significant strain on natural resources, particularly water, and contributes to chemical pollution. While plastic-based alternatives have attempted to replicate leather, they often fall short in craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal.
This presentation traces Modern Meadow’s journey in developing Innovera—a next-generation material that not only rivals leather in beauty and strength but also surpasses it in sustainability and performance. Our early biofabrication efforts focused on tissue culture using bovine fibroblasts, followed by the production of recombinant collagen to hierarchically assemble collagen structures through fibrillation. Over time, we shifted toward a more pragmatic approach: deeply understanding the structure and function of leather and recreating its properties using biological proteins and existing fiber and textile technologies.
By leveraging abundant plant protein and recycled polymer sources and integrating expertise from nonwoven manufacturing, textile processing, and coatings, we engineered Innovera—a material that embodies the essence of leather while offering a more sustainable and scalable solution. This work exemplifies the biofabrication, a power of combining biology, materials science, and engineering to create high-performance alternatives that meet and exceed the expectations of traditional materials.
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