A one-of-a-kind luxury handbag made from lab-grown leather engineered with reconstructed protein sequences from Tyrannosaurus rex fossils was unveiled at the Art Zoo museum in Amsterdam.
The bag was designed by the avant-garde techwear label Enfin Levé and produced through a collaboration between creative agency VML, genomic engineering firm The Organoid Company and biotechnology company Lab-Grown Leather Ltd., according to a statement posted on VML’s website.
It will remain on display at the museum for six weeks beside a T. rex skeleton acquired from Naturalis Biodiversity Center. The handbag will then be auctioned to the highest bidder, the statement said.
The project follows a partnership announced in 2025 by the three companies to develop leather from prehistoric species as a sustainable alternative to traditional animal leather. The material, called T. Rex Leather, uses fossilized T. rex collagen sequences as a blueprint.
Scientists at The Organoid Company reconstructed and optimized the ancient protein sequences using computational biology and AI modeling to create a complete collagen blueprint. They inserted the synthesized DNA into a carrier cell line. Billions of these engineered cells were then cultivated using Lab-Grown Leather’s proprietary Advanced Tissue Engineering Platform and integrated into its Elemental-X product stream.
Lab-Grown Leather’s scaffold-free process allows the cells to form their own natural structure, resulting in a material that is structurally identical to traditional leather, according to the company’s project page. The leather is biodegradable, repairable and fully traceable, the companies said.
Thomas Mitchell, CEO of The Organoid Company, said in the VML statement: “This project demonstrates how genome and protein engineering can create entirely new classes of biomaterials. By reconstructing and optimizing ancient protein sequences, we’ve designed T-Rex leather inspired by prehistoric biology and cloned it into a custom-engineered cell line.”
Professor Che Connon of Lab-Grown Leather added: “Our proprietary advanced tissue engineering platform has once again proven its versatility. By collaborating with VML and The Organoid Company, we’re unlocking the potential to engineer leather from prehistoric species, starting with the formidable T-Rex.”
Bas Korsten, global chief creative officer for innovation and CCO EMEA at VML, said: “With T-Rex leather we’re harnessing the biology of the past to create the luxury materials of the future. The stark reality is that lab-grown leather hasn’t yet convinced the luxury world. Why? Because it feels like an imitation. We knew we had to do something radically different.”
Michal Hadas, founder and lead designer at Enfin Levé, said the design followed the material’s natural behavior rather than imposing conventional luxury forms.
The collaboration builds on VML’s earlier Mammoth Meatball project, which used similar synthetic biology techniques. Initial applications for the T. Rex leather focus on luxury accessories, with plans to expand into other sectors, the companies said.
Traditional leather production has been linked to deforestation and the use of harmful chemicals in tanning processes. The companies described the new material as a cruelty-free option that avoids those issues, though they provided no independent verification of comparative environmental impacts.
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