Somewhere in a lab, a Tyrannosaurus rex is being brought back to life—not as a living, breathing beast, but as a handbag (Slay king!).
A trio of companies—creative agency VML, genome engineering firm The Organoid Company, and tissue-engineering startup Lab-Grown Leather Ltd.—recently announced a project that seems rather science fiction. They plan to create a new kind of lab-grown, eco-friendly leather, modeled on the collagen of the most iconic predator to ever walk the Earth: Tyrannosaurus rex.
If all goes according to plan, the luxury Cretaceous leather accessory could hit the market by the end of 2025.
Ancient Protein, Modern Promise
The project’s premise is audacious. It involves taking the blueprint of fossilized T-Rex collagen—an ancient structural protein found in skin and bone—and using synthetic biology to design artificial DNA. These designer genes are then inserted into lab-grown cells, which, through a proprietary “scaffold-free” technique, self-organize into something resembling real leather.
“This venture showcases the power of cell-based technology to create materials that are both innovative and ethically sound,” said Che Connon, a professor of tissue engineering and co-founder of Lab-Grown Leather Ltd.
This isn’t the first time VML has toyed with prehistory for publicity. In 2023, the agency famously unveiled a lab-grown “mammoth meatball,” a stunt that garnered global headlines. Now, it seems, the company is betting that ancient biology can drive the next evolution in luxury.
“By reconstructing and optimizing ancient protein sequences, we can design T-Rex leather, a biomaterial inspired by prehistoric biology,” said Thomas Mitchell, CEO of The Organoid Company. “We’re passionate about pushing the frontiers of synthetic biology… to pioneer sustainable alternatives for the materials of tomorrow.”
Science or Spectacle?
While the idea sounds great, experts say the project may be more about marketing than molecular precision.
“We have NO preserved tyrannosaurid DNA (indeed, not Mesozoic dinosaur DNA sequences), so there are no T-Rex genes,” Thomas Holtz Jr., a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland, told Live Science. “What this company is doing seems to be fantasy.”
Collagen is a ubiquitous protein. It forms the backbone of skin, tendons, and connective tissue in animals ranging from cows to jellyfish. While paleontologists reportedly found fragments of T-Rex collagen in fossilized bone, they are incomplete and highly degraded. And none have ever been recovered from skin—the tissue that gives leather its strength and texture.
“There really isn’t much of a template to work from that could accurately reconstruct a collagen molecule that is specific to T-Rex,” said Thomas Carr, a paleontologist at Carthage College. “Collagens are pretty generic molecules… I’d be very surprised if there was a species-specific sequence that differentiated T-Rex from their closest living relatives.”
Even if researchers could assemble a plausible sequence, it would remain a synthetic approximation. “It gives them something that is at least unique and can justify a much higher price,” Tom Ellis, a synthetic genome engineer at Imperial College London, told NBC. He called the overall claim “very far-fetched.”
Is It Really Rex Leather, Though?
The companies behind the effort are careful with their language. They describe the product as “inspired by” and “modeled on” T-Rex collagen—not harvested from it. Their material, dubbed Elemental Leather™, is made using lab-grown cells that are coaxed into forming a dense collagen matrix. No animals are harmed. No fossils are ground into pulp. The only hint of prehistory is a sequence pulled from the scientific ether — and even that’s a stretch.
Still, the marketing leans heavily on the mystique of the dinosaur. But what makes this leather T-Rex-like? Not much, critics argue. At its molecular core, it may be indistinguishable from bovine or human collagen. And that, say scientists, raises a deeper question: Why invoke the ghost of a dinosaur to sell a material that could stand on its own?
Carr sees the ethical goals as valid, but the branding as unnecessary. “The notion of cruelty-free animal products is a legitimate ethical avenue to explore,” he said. “It doesn’t need any exotic ‘prehistoric’ twist.”
The Bigger Picture: A Greener Industry?
Even if the T-Rex connection is more poetic than precise, the broader ambitions of the project are striking. Traditional leather production comes at a steep cost: livestock farming drives deforestation, and tanning processes involve heavy metals like chromium that pollute waterways. Alternatives—ranging from mushroom leather to synthetic pleather—have sought to fill the gap, with mixed results.
Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. offers something different. Its scaffold-free biofabrication method allows cells to build their own structure, yielding a product that the company claims is “structurally and genetically identical” to natural leather. And it’s biodegradable—unlike synthetic options.
The company sees potential far beyond handbags. The same materials could one day upholster car interiors or replace animal hides in furniture. It’s a vision of a world where nature’s templates are recreated without harm, and where luxury doesn’t have to mean compromise.
The global leather goods market is estimated to reach $780 billion by 2035, with increasing demand for sustainable alternatives. Bio-based materials are surging in popularity, growing by 10–15% annually.
Long Live the King
In the end, T-Rex leather may not contain real Rex material. But it may still mark a turning point: a moment when biotech, sustainability, and sci-fi came together to shape the future of fashion.
To its skeptics, the project flirts too closely with hype marketing. To its champions, it offers a powerful metaphor—and a product—that could shift industry norms.
One thing is certain: this isn’t your typical fashion statement. And in a world hungry for both innovation and impact, that may be enough to make a splash.
