A team of researchers led by Boston College engineer Glenn Gaudette has grown meat cells on an edible spinach scaffold, a potential advancement for the development of cultured meat. The spinach leaf's circulatory network successfully served as a platform to grow bovine animal protein, which may help reduce environmental costs and meet the rising demand for cultured meat. The team removed the plant cells from the spinach leaf and used the remaining vascular framework to grow isolated cow precursor meat cells, which remained viable and differentiated into muscle mass for up to 14 days. The researchers plan to further characterize the materials and processes to better understand how to meet consumer demand and gauge large-scale production.