Lab-Grown Wood Could Solve a Sustainability Crisis

Around the world, people use wood for fuel, shelter, and commodities. Despite a growing demand for lumber products, trees—especially large, old ones that yield the highest quantity and quality of wood—are a finite resource.

However, within these sustainability issues lies another problem: Even when a tree is cut down, not all of it can be used for major industrial uses, like building homes and furniture. Bark and pith, or the center of the tree, cannot be turned into logs. Additionally, wood for construction is typically cut into long, rectangular or square planks from the round trunk, leaving considerable portions unused.

Tom Clement, a software engineer-turned systems biologist, was originally captured by this problem of using round trunks to cut square boards. As he explored the challenges to address this, he realized how, despite the shortcomings in current logging approaches, there wasn’t a solution to tackle the issue of trees being a limited resource. He shared these thoughts with his colleague, tissue engineer Kianti Figler, who had cofounded a company that produced cell-cultured fish. “We thought, ‘We have to be able to do better,’” Clement recalled.

They landed on an idea to grow trees, or at least tree wood, in the lab and use this in place of traditional lumber. “So, we can leave the forests [to] be a function for biodiversity for the planet and make everything that we want from this nice durable material without getting rid of them,” Clement said. Like Figler, Clement had also previously cofounded a company, which developed electronic devices. Armed with their past experiences and to bring their idea to fruition, the duo teamed up with plant scientists to launch New Dawn Bio and begin growing wood from plant cell cultures.

Growing Wood More Efficiently from the Lab Bench

In a natural tree, stem cells in the tree trunk grow outward in rings, where they mature into xylem cells. While alive, these cells help transport water and other compounds through the plant. At the end of their life cycles, the cells, which accumulate cellulose and lignin in a secondary cell wall, undergo a programmed cell death in which they shed their internal contents to leave only the rigid cell wall as wood.¹ Depending on the tree species, it can take two or more decades for the tree to grow enough to have sufficient wood for lumber.

“We sidestep that entire process and get you only the thing that you want to build the product that you want,” Clement said. Luckily for the budding company, researchers already developed methods for culturing tree stem cells into xylem cells. Because they can grow the stem cells in suspension with optimal conditions, as opposed to confined to two-dimensions in natural trees surviving uncontrollable weather, the researchers can produce wood faster.

Once the researchers have the cell density they want, they trigger xylem maturation with the same signals that the cells receive in regular trees, and then, Clement said, the cells do the rest. “We're basically a fancy cell daycare, massaging the cells, keeping them happy up until the point where they make wood tissue. And then our job is done,” he said.

Although the team could build on existing knowledge about xylem cell culture to get their project started, turning the deceased xylem into functional products required to replace natural wood was a brand-new challenge; the researchers have also had to consider the appearance of their cell-cultured wood. “A lot of our focus and attention and love has gone into figuring out ways to outshine there in those dimensions,” Clement said.

Since the team controls the maturation process, they can also promote the wood development into whatever shape they want, further improving on the current approach to lumber processing. “Seeing the first cells turned to wood was just such a promising moment in our trajectory,” Clement recalled.

Collaborative Biotechnology to Advance Sustainable Solutions

Currently, the team can create products that are large enough to fit in one’s hand but not quite at the scale of a tabletop. However, given the current unsustainable demand for lumber around the world, Clement said that the project has still been a meaningful experience. “To then grow those kinds of tree species here in cell culture and to see in your hands the things that can change the way that we deal with wood in the world, yeah, that's been such a fulfilling thing. I would say that's the biggest ‘wow’ moment for us as a team.”

In addition to building New Dawn Bio, Clement and his team also launched the Plant Cell Institute in 2023. This organization consists of researchers and startups that volunteer to share protocols and resources for plant cell projects. “The future is bright for biotechnology where we take some of this open knowledge sharing mindset and apply it to cool stuff like growing wood from cells and cell-cultured coffee and cocoa. I think there's great things to do for the planet,” Clement said.