Modern Meadow | |
Industry: | Biotechnology |
Foundation: | 2011 |
Key People: | Catherine Roggero-Lovis (CEO)[1] |
Founders: | Andras Forgacs Gabor Forgacs Karoly Jakab Francoise Marga |
Location City: | Nutley, New Jersey |
Location Country: | U.S. |
Modern Meadow is an American biotechnology company that uses biofabrication to create sustainable materials. The company was co-founded by Andras Forgacs, Gabor Forgacs, Karoly Jakab and Francoise Marga in 2011, and is based in Nutley, New Jersey.[2] [3]
In 2011, Andras Forgacs and his father Gabor Forgacs, Jakab and Marga co-founded Modern Meadow.[2] The company’s initial goal was to create leather and meat in tissue cultures, without the use of live animals.[4]
In 2018, Modern Meadow partnered with Evonik to commercially produce biofabricated materials.[5]
Modern Meadow entered into a joint venture in 2021 with Limonta, an Italian textiles and materials company, to create BioFabric. The new company creates sustainable materials through a process called biofabrication.[6]
In 2017, it was announced that Modern Meadow had plans to develop the “world’s first biofabricated leather”. The company displayed a prototype T-shirt made from the material at the Museum of Modern Art in an exhibit, “Items: Is Fashion Modern,” until 2018.[4] In 2022, Catherine Roggero-Lovisi became the company’s CEO.[7]
The company makes plant-based protein biopolymers to create a variety of textiles. It combines plant-based proteins with bio-based polyurethane. The resulting polymer blend is called Bio-Alloy.[8] [9]
Bio-Alloy is used to create plant-based leather alternatives including Bio-Tex, which the company developed for the American fashion brand Tory Burch;[10] as well as Bio-VERA, a blend of biomaterial and synthetic polymer substrate[11] made for use in transportation, wall coverings, and interior design.[12]