Cultivated Meat Pioneer Uma Valeti

Founder of Upside Foods, the world's first cultivated meat company

Dr. Uma Valeti was a cardiologist at the renowned Mayo Clinic when he saw firsthand the therapeutic power and promise of stem-cell technology to grow human heart cells in a lab. He decided that he personally might do more good in the world if he could successfully harness stem-cell technology to grow meat. “If I continued as a cardiologist," Dr. Valeti said, "maybe I would save 2,000 or 3,000 lives over the next 30 years. But if I focus on [cell-based meat], I have the potential to save billions of human lives and trillions of animal lives.”

In 2015, Dr. Valeti co-founded Memphis Meats (now called Upside Foods), the world’s first lab-grown meat company. In 2016, he and the company created the first lab-cultured meatball, and in 2017, cultured duck and fried chicken, which offered a taste of the coming lab-grown meat revolution. More than 80 startups today are working on no-kill meat; Upside Foods is the first and only company whose cultured meat has received the FDA’s blessing as safe to eat.

“Clean meat,” for which no animals are caged or slaughtered, has other potential advantages. Lab-grown meat could be abundant and reduce worldwide protein shortages. Created in a sterile factory, it could be free of pathogens, pesticides, and antibiotics. It could be engineered to be low in bad cholesterol or high in omega 3 fatty acids. And it can be produced in a greener way than traditional big agriculture, which emits vast quantities of carbon and destroys forests and biodiversity. And it will not contribute to zoonotic diseases that people get from living in close proximity to livestock.