Memphis Meats a leading start-up in the race to develop cultured meat products, recently announced that it had closed a $161 million funding round. IDTechEx Analyst Dr Michael Dent discusses what this means for the commercialisation of the cultured meat industry.

Attendees at Healthcare Sensor Innovations USA 2020 will hear from industry representatives on how the next wave of connected and wearable medical devices will bring increased benefits to patients, healthcare providers, insurers, and the pharmaceutical industry.

The current outbreak of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has hit China in the past month and spread to 25 nations. Early detection and diagnosis are essential to reduce the prevalence of infectious diseases and to prevent them from becoming epidemic or even pandemic.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) must be better managed for patient care to improve. The protocols for monitoring patients are rapidly evolving. Historically, patients who fall ill are required to travel in order to visit a general practitioner or hospital. This procedure may soon become a thing of the past.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Wednesday 5 February 2020 titled Plant-Based and Cultured Meat: The Future of Meat Alternatives.

There is dramatic change in some industries, with leading printed electronics vendors moving quickly to capitalize on the new sought after capabilities. These opportunities will be addressed at the Printed Electronics Europe exhibition and conference in Berlin on 13 - 14 May (register by 23 January to save 40%).

Diagnosing CVD is the first step in patients' road to recovery. It is imperative to detect the disease early in order to administer treatment while it is still treatable. In addition, preventing the disease altogether is becoming more important in healthcare. The main approaches for detecting CVD are currently in vitro diagnostics (IVD) at point-of-care (POC) and the use artificial intelligence (AI) in cardiovascular imaging.

Central to any circular economy is polymer recycling. Current mechanical recycling processes face many issues from societal perceptions of recycling, to economic and technological barriers; however, there are a number of companies whose innovations are changing the face of polymer recycling. From IDTechEx's latest report, "Green Technology and Polymer Recycling: Market Analysis 2020-2030" by Dr Bryony Core, here is a rundown of some of these key companies.

2019 has been a big year for plant-based meat substitutes. Spurred on by consumer perceptions of healthiness and a global megatrend towards conscious consumptions, sales of plant-based meat grew by almost 40%, compared with 2017. In the three months after going public, plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat's share price surged by 500% and rival Impossible Foods secured an additional $300 million in funding.

Will the hamburgers of the future be made from animal cells grown in a lab instead of inside a cow? Cultured meat, also known as "cell-based" or "clean" meat, could soon be making its way to our dinner plates, completely bypassing the need for animal slaughter and overcoming some of the major environmental issues that currently plague the global agriculture industry. Even though no products have yet been released and there are major challenges with cost, regulation and scale up, the industry is growing rapidly, with investment reaching a new high in 2019.

IDTechEx is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 16 January 2020 titled Innovations in Cardiovascular Disease Management.

As developers' understanding of this disease grows, so will the range of devices at their disposal to address it. They have only scratched the surface of how technology can improve CVD patients' lives and, as they dig deeper, they will continue to unlock the potential of this growing market.

The idea of growing meat outside an animal has been around for a long time. In 1931, Winston Churchill wrote that by the 1980s "we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." Although his timing was off by four decades, his predictions are beginning to materialise as the world looks for new ways to feed its burgeoning population whilst overcoming the environmental problems of conventional animal agriculture.

Held over 20 - 21 November 2019 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, USA, the latest edition of the IDTechEx Show! will once again feature the application of emerging technologies to the healthcare industry.

The ear has long been touted as an excellent place for technology to exist on the body. Over 5 years of gradually gaining momentum, the topic of "hearables" is finally being recognized more widely for the excellent opportunity which it presents.

Opening the IDTechEx Show! on November 20-21 at the Santa Clara Convention Center are three cornerstone speakers, highlighting key progress and future visions across the topics covered at the event.

A key focus of the Sensors USA part of the IDTechEx Show! will be Point-of-Care Biosensors. Biosensor devices provide information associated with a specific health condition or disease. The general trend in biosensors is a move from testing in centralized hospitals, to the patents with point-of-care devices.

The general trend in electronics is towards smaller and faster devices. Now something different is coming to market. The new competitive frontier is form factor: flexible, stretchable and structural electronics.

On November 20 & 21 the IDTechEx Show! opens in the Santa Clara convention center to 3,500 people representing technology scouts and innovation managers from global brands to suppliers from across the value chain.

Wearable technology devices seek to provide value in the augmentation of the wearer by design and function. From this perspective, electronic skin patches are a particularly interesting device type, anchoring the device to the skin in order for it to achieve a specific function.