Lab-grown fat could give cultured meat real flavor and texture

Researchers have successfully produced cultivated fat tissue in a way that could help enable large-scale production of more flavorful cultured meat

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TUFTS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: FAT CONTRIBUTES TEXTURE AND DISTINCT FLAVOR TO FARM RAISED BEEF (SHOWN HERE) AND OTHER MEATS. RESEARCHERS HAVE REPLICATED THE TEXTURE AND COMPOSITION OF NATURAL FAT IN FAT TISSUE GROWN FROM CELLS. view more 

CREDIT: MIKE SILVER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Researchers at Tufts University have successfully bulk-produced fat tissue in the lab that has a similar texture and make-up to fat tissue naturally occurring in animals. The results, described in a study published today in eLife, could be applied to the production of cultured meat grown entirely from cells, giving it a more realistic texture and flavor.

Startup companies around the world are developing cultivated meat—cell-grown chicken, beef, pork, and fish. Most are in early stages of development, not ready for large-scale production and, with a couple of exceptions, not yet approved for commercial sale.

Most of those products in development are in the form of an unstructured mixture of cells—think chicken nuggets instead of a slice of chicken breast. What is lacking is the real texture of a fillet or steak—a texture created by muscle fibers, connective tissue, and fat.

It’s the fat that contributes not only texture, but also to its delicious flavor to the meat. Consumer tests with natural beef of varying fat content showed the highest scores for beef containing 36% fat.

Producing cultured fat tissue in sufficient quantities has been a major challenge, because as the fat grows into a mass, the cells in the middle become starved of oxygen and nutrients. In nature, blood vessels and capillaries deliver oxygen and nutrients throughout the tissue. Researchers still have no way to replicate that vascular network at large scale in lab-grown tissue, so they can only grow muscle or fat to a few millimeters in size.

To get around this limitation, the researchers grew fat cells derived from mice and pigs first in a flat, two-dimensional layer, then harvested those cells and aggregated them into a three-dimensional mass with binders such as alginate (developed from seaweed) and microbial transglutaminase (MTG), which are both already used in some commercial foods.

“Our goal was to develop a relatively simple method of producing bulk fat. Since fat tissue is predominantly cells with few other structural components, we thought that aggregating the cells after growth would be sufficient to reproduce the taste, nutrition, and texture profile of natural animal fat,” said John Yuen Jr., a graduate student working at the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA). “This can work when creating the tissue solely for food, since there’s no requirement to keep the cells alive once we gather the fat in bulk.”

Taste and Feel

The aggregated fat cells immediately had the appearance of fat tissue, but to see if they truly reproduced the features of native fat from animals, the team carried out a further series of experiments.

First, they explored the texture, by compressing the fat tissue and seeing how much pressure it could withstand compared to natural animal fat. They found that cell-grown fat bound with alginate was able to withstand a similar amount of pressure as fat tissue in livestock and poultry, and that the cell-grown fat bound with MTG behaved more like rendered fat, similar to lard or tallow. This suggests it could be possible to fine-tune the texture of cultured fat using different types and amounts of binders, so that it most closely resembles the real-life texture of fat within meat.

The molecular composition of fat is important, too. Cooking releases hundreds of compounds that add flavor and aroma to the meat, and most of those compounds originate from fat, including lipids and their component fatty acids.

The Tufts research team examined the composition of molecules from the cell-grown fat and found that the mix of fatty acids from cultured mouse fat differed from native mouse fat, but that cultured pig fat had a much closer fatty acid profile to the native tissue. The team’s preliminary research suggests it might be possible to supplement growing fat cells with different lipids to ensure that they more closely match the fatty acid composition of natural meat.

“This method of aggregating cultured fat cells with binding agents can be translated to large-scale production of cultured fat tissue in bioreactors—a key obstacle in the development of cultured meat,” said David Kaplan, Stern Family professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts and director of TUCCA. “We continue to look at every aspect of cultured meat production with an eye toward enabling mass production of meat that looks, tastes, and feels like the real thing.”

TUCCA has been leading the development of a growing industry in cellular agriculture, and along with a consortium of academic and corporate members – the TUCCA Consortium – it is solving key technological challenges in cell grown meat production. Their vision is nothing less than ushering in a 3rd epoch in human harvesting of food -- from hunting to domesticated animal farming to cellular agriculture

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JOURNAL

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.82120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Aggregating in vitro-grown adipocytes to produce macroscale cell-cultured fat tissue with tunable lipid compositions for food applications

RACIST MEDICINE

For people with Parkinson’s disease, quality of life linked to race, ethnicity

Black, Hispanic, Asian people reported lower quality of life than white people

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY

MINNEAPOLIS – Among those living with Parkinson’s disease, Black, Hispanic and Asian people were found to have a lower health-related quality of life than white people, according to a new study published in the April 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology® , the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Health-related quality of life is a measure of a person’s level of comfort, health and happiness.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system that causes uncontrolled movements, stiffness and loss of balance. It can be debilitating. Symptoms worsen over time making it increasingly difficult to engage in daily activities.

“Racial and ethnic minorities have been underrepresented in Parkinson’s disease research, which has limited our understanding of treatments and outcomes across these populations,” said study author Daniel Di Luca, MD, of the University of Toronto in Canada. “Previous research has shown that some populations may have limited access to neurologists, medications and other therapies. Our study found that Black, Hispanic and Asian people with Parkinson’s do have a lower quality of life than white people, and that some health disparities and management differences persist even with ongoing expert neurologist care.”

The study involved 8,514 people with Parkinson’s disease; 90% were white, 6% were Hispanic, 2% were Asian and 2% were Black.

To evaluate quality of life, researchers asked participants to complete a questionnaire. It included 39 questions on how often during the past month participants experienced difficulty with daily tasks such as housework, cooking and getting around in public. It also asked how often they felt anxious, depressed, ignored by others or unable to communicate properly. Participants answered each question using a five-point scale with zero representing never and four representing always. The higher the score, the worse the quality of life.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex and disease duration as well as medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, the total average score was 29 for Black people, 27 for Hispanic people, 25 for Asian people and 23 for white people. When looking at responses to various questions, scores for mobility, emotional well-being, social support and pain were also worse for Black, Hispanic, and Asian people than for white people.

The researchers found that thinking and memory tests accounted for some of the differences in quality-of-life scores between Black, Hispanic, Asian and white people. Di Luca noted that previous studies have shown lower socioeconomic status, education and other psychological stressors may be associated with worse cognitive scores. In addition, cultural biases have also been shown to potentially influence the results of cognitive testing.

“Evaluating the underlying reasons behind differences in quality of life between racial and ethnic groups is crucial to improve care,” Di Luca said. “Future studies are needed to gain a better understanding of the reasons for treatment and outcome differences in underrepresented populations, including differences in thinking and memory, clinical care and quality of life.”

A limitation of the study was the small number of people in the non-white, non-Hispanic groups, which Marras said limited researchers’ ability to detect small but potentially important differences.

The study was supported by the Parkinson’s Foundation and the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project.

Learn more about Parkinson’s disease at BrainandLife.org, home of the American Academy of Neurology’s free patient and caregiver magazine focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Follow Brain & Life® on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When posting to social media channels about this research, we encourage you to use the hashtags #Neurology and #AANscience.

The American Academy of Neurology is the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 40,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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JOURNAL

Neurology

Disparities identified among patients receiving advanced pulmonary support

NIH-funded study finds some adults are more likely to receive ECMO when compared to those who received mechanical ventilation only

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NIH/NATIONAL HEART, LUNG AND BLOOD INSTITUTE

Some adults with severe respiratory illness, including women, those with public insurance, and people with fewer financial resources, may be less likely to receive an advanced form of life support known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). A research team supported by the National Institutes of Health found that adults who received ECMO appeared to skew toward men, people with private health insurance, and those who came from areas with higher median incomes. ECMO helps patients with life-threatening illness or injury breathe by simulating the function of the heart and/or lungs, while giving those organs a chance to rest.

 

The study published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

In ECMO, a machine pumps blood out of the body, sends it through devices that feed it oxygen, and then returns it to the body. It is typically a treatment of last resort and provided to patients who first receive mechanical ventilation, a standard type of breathing assistance used in critical care.  
 

Researchers reviewed health insurance data from more than 2 million adults with severe respiratory illness between 2016 and 2019, using the Nationwide Readmissions Database. All patients first received mechanical ventilation, which in this case was defined as having a breathing tube inserted into the airways to help their bodies receive enough oxygen.

Supplemental oxygen can also be provided through a face mask or breathing tubes inserted into the nostrils, but this review only looked at advanced breathing assistance. Among adults who received mechanical ventilation, 18,725 also received ECMO. 
 
After conducting multiple analyses, the researchers found that men received ECMO more often than women, even if they had the same type of insurance and income level. Men accounted for 64% of patients receiving ECMO compared to 36% of women. In addition, men made up 55% of those who just received mechanical ventilation, compared to 45% of women.

 

When looking at ECMO based on insurance types, 38% of patients had private insurance and 37% had Medicare. However, 18% had Medicaid and 7% had other insurance, which could include being uninsured. Among patients who only received mechanical ventilation, 58% used Medicare, 17% used Medicaid, 17% used private insurance, and 8% had other insurance. 

Patients from higher income areas accounted for 25% of those who received ECMO, as did 25% of patients from lower-income areas. Still, just 17% of patients who only received mechanical ventilation came from high-income areas, compared to 33% of patients from lower-income areas. 

 

“The goal is to really get people thinking about where some disparities within critical care might live,” said Anuj B. Mehta, M.D., the first study author and an assistant professor of medicine within the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at Denver Health and Hospital Authority and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “The next step is to think about how we can investigate those disparities with better data and better sources, which supports the long-term goal of ensuring equitable care.” 

Mehta, a pulmonologist and critical care medicine doctor, stressed these findings are associations and do not necessarily mean that doctors intentionally refer some patients over others for advanced care. He and the authors note multiple factors could explain these variations. 
 
Implicit bias among health care providers could be one. Patient preferences could be another. Neither one of these factors could be controlled for in this retrospective review, the researchers said. Living near or being more likely to be referred to an advanced medical center that provides ECMO could be a third. Since ECMO is not available at all medical centers and can be limited where it is offered, about half of all eligible patients receive it. However, even after controlling for access to ECMO, such as looking at patients who received care at the same hospital, the researchers still found disparities. 
 
In addition to controlling for gender, health insurance, and income, the researchers assessed other factors to allow for similar comparisons among patients. This included age, severity of illness, reasons for seeking care, regions where they sought care, and other health conditions. 
  

“These findings add to existing research that shows more work is needed to both understand and alleviate disparities in advanced pulmonary care,” said James P. Kiley, Ph.D., the director of the Division of Lung Diseases at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). 
 
ECMO was created about 50 years ago. Despite its mixed outcomes in prolonging life compared to other types of respiratory care, its use continues to expand.

 

There are two types of ECMO: veno-venous (VV), which provides breathing support by taking over for the lungs, and veno-arterial (VA), which assumes the role of both the heart and lungs. VA ECMO is often used to help patients recovering from major heart surgery. VV ECMO may provide temporary breathing assistance to patients waiting for a lung transplant, or to assist patients recovering from severe respiratory failure.  

The study was funded primarily by NHLBI (K23HL141704) and received additional support from the National Institute of Nursing Research (R01NR016459). 
 

Reference: Mehta AB, Taylor JK, Day G, et al. Disparities in adult patient selection for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the United States: A population-level study. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2023; doi: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202212-1029OC.    
       

                                                                           ###      
             
About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): NHLBI is the global leader in conducting and supporting research in heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders that advances scientific knowledge, improves public health, and saves lives. For more information, visit https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/.       
               

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit https://www.nih.gov/.                 

     

                                                    NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health  

 

 

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JOURNAL

Annals of the American Thoracic Society

DOI

10.1513/AnnalsATS.202212-1029OC 

ARTICLE TITLE

Disparities in adult patient selection for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the United States: A population-level study

Public reporting has not improved German hospital quality

The German hospital market presents a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between public reporting and quality improvement in the absence of performance-linked payment incentives in a high-income country

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HEALTH AFFAIRS

Hospital quality has been measured and made publicly available for more than two decades in the US. In Germany, similar efforts were launched in 2004, when all acute care hospitals began being required to report structural, process, and outcome indicators as part of a national quality monitoring program. Hospitals are now mandated to submit quality reports annually. The German hospital market presents a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between public reporting and quality improvement in the absence of performance-linked payment incentives in a high-income country. In an analysis about the successes of quality measurement to date, Esra Eren Bayindir and Jonas Schreyögg, both of the University of Hamburg, reviewed quality indicators for 2012–19, examining data for several common health services performed in hospitals, including hip and knee replacements, pressure ulcers, and childbirth. The authors found that, on average, hospitals with low quality ratings were more likely to move to a higher quality category, but hospitals with high quality ratings were more likely to move to a lower category. According to the authors, although hospitals’ overall motivation and market forces play roles in improving quality, they are not sufficient to maintain the quality of high-performing hospitals. The authors’ findings support the idea that in Germany, public reporting provides an important quality benchmark. However, they conclude, quality improvement has not been achieved for some indicators, even in the absence of price competition. They recommend making hospital quality information more accessible to the public, especially to those with limited health literacy, and to further promote its use among referring physicians to serve as a potential base for selection and to speed up quality improvement.

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Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.

Health Affairs podcasts go beyond the journal’s pages to bring you insightful discussions on the latest news and research affecting health policy. On our flagship podcast, A Health Podyssey, Editor-In-Chief Alan Weil interviews the leading researchers and influencers shaping the field’s big ideas. Join Health Affairs editors on Health Affairs This Week as they discuss the week’s most pressing health policy news. All in 15 minutes or less.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.

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JOURNAL

Health Affairs

ARTICLE TITLE

Public Reporting Has Not Improved German Hospital Quality

U$A

Medicaid reimbursement for mental health varies widely across states

OHSU study reveals fivefold variance among states in Medicaid reimbursement rates for mental health services

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY

Medicaid reimbursement for the same mental health treatment varies dramatically among U.S. states, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University.

The study published today in the April edition of the journal Health Affairs.

Medicaid is the largest single payer for mental health services in the country, yet previous research shows that many health care providers won’t accept patients covered by Medicaid — despite the fact that it serves a population disproportionately affected by mental illness.

In this study, researchers documented commonly billed services to psychiatrists nationwide, and then compared the Medicaid reimbursement rates across states. They found as much as a fivefold difference, with Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Maine reimbursing the least for the same set of services. Nebraska, Alaska and Arkansas reimburse at the highest rates.

“We know there are significant barriers in accessing mental health care,” said lead author Jane Zhu, M.D., assistant professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU School of Medicine. “States that are chronically underfunding or underpaying their psychiatrists should take note of where they stand. For those states, raising the reimbursement rate may be one tool to increase recruitment and retention of mental health professionals.”

The study also compared state Medicaid rates with that of Medicare, the federal health insurance for people 65 and older that is often seen as a standard for reimbursement. Researchers found that, on average, Medicaid paid about 80% of the same services paid under Medicare.

The findings come amid a national shortfall in access to mental health treatment, and as several states around the country consider raising reimbursement rates for behavioral health services in Medicaid.

Oregon is one of those states, as the Oregon Health Authority in January approved boosting Medicaid reimbursement rates by about a third for behavioral health services delivered by certain providers. The new study draws on data collected from last year showing that Oregon previously ranked in the lower half in terms of Medicaid reimbursement compared to other states.

Behavioral health is riddled with funding and workforce shortages nationwide and in Oregon.

“Reimbursement rates are just one piece of that puzzle,” Zhu said. “We don’t know whether raising reimbursement rates will be effective in improving access to mental health treatment. Increasing reimbursement rates is probably going to be necessary but not sufficient.”

Researchers used a newly available set of Medicaid claims data known as the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Analytic Files, or TAF.

In addition to Zhu, co-authors on the study included Stephanie Renfro, M.S., associate director of the OHSU Center for Health Systems Effectiveness; Kelsey Watson, Ph.D., biostatistician in the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness; Ashmira Deshmukh, M.P.H., a recent graduate of the OHSU-Portland State University School of Public Health; and John McConnell, Ph.D., director of the Center for Health Systems Effectiveness and professor of emergency medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health, award K08MH123624.

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JOURNAL

Health Affairs

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.2022.00805 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Medicaid Reimbursement For Mental Health Services: Comparisons Across States And With Medicare

People living with HIV at substantially higher risk of depression and suicide, especially in first 2 years after diagnosis

Surprisingly, the nationwide study found that siblings of people living with HIV are also at greater risk of depression and suicide compared to the general population

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story**

People living with HIV (PLWH) are far more likely to be diagnosed with depression, take antidepressants, be treated with electroconvulsive therapy, and commit suicide than population controls, especially in the first two years after diagnosis, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April).

The nationwide study in Denmark comparing almost 6,000 PLWH with over 59,000 matched controls over 20 years, indicates that in the first 2 years after diagnosis PLWH were around three times more likely to develop depression, use antidepressants and undergo electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and were 10 times more likely to commit suicide compared to their counterparts without HIV.

“It’s much higher than I expected”, says lead author Dr Lars Omland from Copenhagen University, Denmark. “Our findings clearly highlight the serious mental health implications of being given a diagnosis of HIV and the importance of clinicians looking out for of symptoms of depression in this high-risk population. Caring for people with HIV, which has traditionally focused on their physical health, should place more emphasis on their mental health.”

Previous studies have suggested that HIV infection might be associated with depression, but have been inconclusive. And no studies have looked at whether familial factors might influence the link between HIV infection and depression.

To find out more, researchers used Denmark’s national health registers to look for records of depression (diagnoses, use of antidepressants, ECT, and suicide) in 5,943 individuals diagnosed with HIV (25% women, average age at inclusion 38 years) between 1995 and 2021. They compared PLWH’s risk of depression with 59,430 sex- and date-of-birth matched controls from the general population. They also compared the risks between 5,807  siblings of PLWH and 82,411 siblings of controls.

The researchers adjusted for a range of factors likely to influence the results, sex and age.

Overall, PLWH had double the risk of depression and treatment with ECT compared to controls, 1.5 times greater risk of antidepressant use, and 3.5 times increased risk for suicide (see table 1 and figure 1 in notes to editors). The risks were much higher in the 2 years after diagnosis.

When comparing yearly proportions (percentage) of participants using psychiatric hospitals (as inpatients or outpatients) due to depression and use of antidepressants in the 10 years before and after study inclusion, the analysis found an increased proportion of psychiatric hospitals use both prior to, and especially after HIV diagnosis for PLWH (see table 2 in notes to editors). For instance, 2 years before study inclusion, 6.4% of PLWH used antidepressants, which was 1.2% more than controls. This difference increased to 3.1% 2 years after study inclusion.

Interestingly, siblings of PLWH also faced an increased risk of depression diagnosis, use of antidepressants, and suicide compared to population controls, but lower than for PLWH (see table 1 in notes to editors). This suggests that family-related factors are unlikely to explain the greater risk observed in PLWH.

“The higher risk of developing depression and suicide in both people living with HIV and their siblings is very troubling, and we need to dig deeper to understand the causes,” says Dr Omland.” One potential explanation for the increased risk of depression and suicide among siblings of people living with HIV could be stress and stigma related to a loved one being diagnosed with a chronic disease. It’s also possible that risk factors for depression and HIV-infection overlap.”

The authors point out that although the study was large, it was observational, and they cannot rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors such as alcohol and illicit drug use and uncontrolled for confounding factors may have influenced the results. They also note that the study was conducted in Denmark, so the results may not apply to other populations.

Notes to editors:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This work was supported by Gilead 2022 (Nordic Fellowship [unrestricted research grant to A.M.L.]). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

This press release is based on abstract 2666 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting. The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee. There is no full paper available at this stage and, as this is an early release from ECCMID, the poster is not yet available. The work has been submitted to a medical journal for publication.

For higher quality versions of figures in abstract click on figure number

Fig1A Fig1B Fig1C Fig1D

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COI STATEMENT

This work was supported by Gilead 2022 (Nordic Fellowship [unrestricted research grant to A.M.L.]). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Launch of the Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility at the University of Huddersfield

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

 

IMAGE: THE SMART ROLLING STOCK MAINTENANCE RESEARCH FACILITY (SRSMRF) INSIDE THE UNIVERSITY’S INSTITUTE OF RAILWAY RESEARCH (IRR) IS PART OF A £1.8 MILLION PROJECT TO INVESTIGATE HOW CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS CAN IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY OF HOW THE UK’S RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK IS MAINTAINED. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD

Cutting-edge technology inside the Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility was on show to industry professionals at a seminar to celebrate the opening of the new facility.

The Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility (SRSMRF) inside the University’s Institute of Railway Research (IRR) is part of a £1.8 million project to investigate how cutting-edge technology and data analysis can improve the efficiency and reliability of how the UK’s railway rolling stock is maintained.

Partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the facility includes a Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Office and the Rolling Stock Maintenance Robotics Lab, as well as funding the equipment and staff time to develop the new stream of research.

While Industrial automation and robotics are already heavily used in a range of industries, these same technologies are not currently exploited to keep trains safe and operating at peak efficiency. The facility aims to be a focal point for industry and academia to collaborate on this core area of railway engineering.    

The seminar was attended by industry professionals, train operators, vehicle manufacturers, the railway infrastructure manager Network Rail, academics from partner universities, robotics companies as leading suppliers to the rail industry.

During the day there were talks explaining modern rolling stock maintenance techniques for passenger and freight vehicles, combined with research into new tools and techniques that can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance.

There were also demonstrations of the new SRSMRF facilities, and the seminar also included presentations of the work carried out at the SRSMRF to date, along with presentations from colleagues in industry and other academic institutes working in the field. 

Guest speakers from the Rail Industry Association (RIA), Rail Partners, Chiltern Trains, Brunel University, Olympus Technologies and Rail Freight Group (RFG) also spoke at the event.

Principal Investigator of the project Professor Gareth Tucker reveals how improving the efficiency of train maintenance is a key initiative for the future of the rail industry because of the potential to reduce costs and also increase the reliability of trains. This, he adds, should make the whole rail system more reliable and will be of growing importance in future if network capacity is going to be increased.

Reducing the cost of maintenance, he continues, should also make rail travel more affordable and help encourage modal shift from car and air transport, therefore contributing to a reduction in transport emissions with rail being the most energy efficient mode of transport.

“The railways are under a lot of financial pressure at the moment,” said Professor Tucker.

“This new facility has been created to investigate how Smart Technologies can help make railway maintenance more efficient and cost-effective. The technologies being developed are robots and automation, increased use of remote conditioning and prognostic maintenance, and the use of data-driven decision making and Artificial Intelligence to help plan maintenance and scheduling of different tasks,” he added.

The SRSMRF builds on the IRR’s expertise in Railway Rolling Stock Engineering and complements the facilities and work programme as part of the UKRRIN Centre of Excellence in Rolling Stock.

Being located within the IRR means the facility is also perfectly placed to access the Institute’s other world-class facilities to carry out its research, including a pantograph test rig and a vehicle-track interaction test rig.

The team within the facility will work closely alongside a range of key industry partners including Northern Railway, Chiltern Railways, Porterbrook, DB Cargo, Network Rail and Unipart Rail over the course of the three-year project and are inviting those interested in collaborating on the research to get in touch.

Adapting apples to the times

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

 

IMAGE: UMD PROFESSOR EMERITUS CHRISTOPHER WALSH STANDS BESIDE THE NEW YELLOW APPLE TREE TAP1. view more 

CREDIT: KATHLEEN HUNT

Through careful crossbreeding and selection, University of Maryland researchers have developed what may just be the perfect apples for American growers trying to adapt to a changing world. The two new apples, a yellow and a red one are heat-tolerant, blight-tolerant, low-maintenance, easy to harvest and not least, delicious-tasting. Both have been approved for patents and are awaiting the final grant from the U.S. Patent Office.

They address a growing suite of problems the apple industry has been grappling with. The fruit has always been labor-intensive to bring to market, with trees that need to be trained, pruned, and harvested by hand. In the past decade, all U.S. farmers have felt the squeeze of labor shortages, and the apple industry has been among the hardest hit. According to USApple, the nonprofit apple industry association, labor shortages caused an average 3% drop in U.S. crop production employment annually from 2016 to 2021, but apple orchard employment plummeted by 22% a year. Meanwhile, the wages farmers must pay have risen at the same time the price of fresh apples has fallen.

Compounding these stressors on apple growers, the climate is changing rapidly: Heat waves in the Pacific Northwest in recent years strained the country’s largest apple producing areas. The South is growing hotter, and northern and eastern regions of the country are seeing shorter and warmer cool seasons, all of which spell uncertainty for orchard fruits tuned to cooler conditions.

The UMD team’s new apple trees could help farmers sidestep these obstacles.

“These trees require a lot less hand labor compared to apples that are available to growers now,“ said Chris Walsh, University of Maryland professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture who developed the new apples with his colleagues Julia Harshman and Kathleen Hunt. “We can’t say they’re non-pruning, but the pruning a farmer would do is minimal on these trees."

The new Maryland varieties grow into much shorter trees, which makes harvesting easier; they also appear tolerant to fire blight, a destructive bacterial disease common to apples. Heat tolerance is another important feature of these apples. It’s one of the earliest characteristics Walsh and his team bred into apples, and was a feature they introduced with the Antietam Blush apple in 2017. Specifically designed to grow in Maryland’s warm, humid climate, the Antietam Blush was the first University of Maryland apple released.

It was the product of the Tree Architecture Program that Walsh launched more than 30 years ago with the planting of some 5,000 apple seedling trees from eight different commercial varieties at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville, Md. Now, the release of a yellow apple called MD-TAP1(which stands for Maryland Tree Architecture Program), and a red apple called MD-TAP2 stand to extend the program’s success even farther, because these apples feature a full suite of characteristics that make life easier for growers across the country.

Michigan State University and Texas A&M University scientists will be conducting trials to see how well the apples grow in their climate conditions. The next step will be to license the apples to a commercial nursery that will produce the stock in large numbers and sell trees directly to apple growers. That nursery would most likely have the honor of coming up with a snazzy marketable name to replace MD-TAP1 and MD-TAP2.

When these apples make it to market, consumers are likely to see them in local fruit stands and farmer’s markets as well as pick-your-own farms.

The yellow MD-TAP1 comes from a parent stock of apple marketed as GoldRush, and it looks and tastes a bit like a Golden Delicious. Its fruit ripens in late September. The red MD-TAP2 is a child of Fuji apple stock, so it carries many of the same sweet flavor attributes. It ripens in October which is perfect timing for the pick-your-own apple and pumpkin season.

“These apples were bred for direct to consumer sales,” Walsh said. “They’re not meant for the big chain stores to be shipped and stored for months. They’re meant to be eaten right off the tree.”

New TAP1 Yellow apple tree developed at the University of Maryland

TAP2 red apples developed at the University of Maryland.

CREDIT

Kathleen Hunt

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study