Lab-Grown T-Rex leather transforms into a bag
Techwear company Enfin Levé debuts a bag made from lab-grown T-Rex skin and collagen collected from fossilized dinosaur bone fragments. On public display at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam, the accessory sits next to a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen cast on loan from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. The bag is brought to life using the collagen of a sample. In typical production, it comes from the skins of cattle, sheep or other animals after slaughter, but in Lab-Grown T-Rex Leather, the collagen sequence was reconstructed from fossilized T-rex bone fragments. The original protein recovered from these fossils was incomplete, meaning that fossilization over 68 million years leaves gaps in the biological record, so scientists at The Organoid Company used computational biology and AI modeling to predict and fill in the missing genetic data.
The result was a complete, synthetic collagen blueprint for the species. This synthesized DNA was then introduced into a carrier cell line and these cells were cultured at scale using Lab-Grown Leather’s process called the Advanced Tissue Engineering Platform. It uses a scaffold-free approach in which, instead of growing cells in an existing structure, they are cultured in conditions that allow them to create their own extracellular matrix from scratch. The matrix they produce is identical to the collagen found in conventional animal skin, so in this case, the finished material is biodegradable, repairable and produced without chromium-based tanning chemicals, the company says.
all images courtesy of VML
Technical clothing label Enfin Levé designs the accessory
After the production of the Lab-Grown T-Rex leather bag went through the process of cell cultured leather materials, it was handed over to Enfin Levé for design and manufacture. Founder Michal Hadas says the design process for the accessories it begins with him and the team understanding where T-Rex skin resists stress, how it holds tension, and how its surface responds to manufacturing techniques. The resulting bag follows this logic, and the master designer describes the material as having a character unlike any leather Enfin Levé has worked with before, adding that the design process involved “letting the material define the object.”
The T-Rex lab leather bag was designed by Michal Hadas, founder of Warsaw-born technical clothing company Enfin Levé, and produced through a collaboration between creative agency VML, genomic engineering company, The Organoid Company and Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. The accessory is set to remain on display on April 2. On April 6, the Art20 exhibition closes, the company says it is expected to be auctioned.
Techwear company Enfin Levé debuts a bag made from Lab-Grown T-Rex Leather
the collagen sequence was reconstructed from fossil T-rex bone fragments
the matrix produced is identical to the collagen found in conventional animal skin
the accessory is on public display at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam
project information:
material: Leather T-Rex
companies: He is finally Risen, VML, The Organoid Society, Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. | @enfinleve, @vml_global
museum: Art Zoom Museum
