A 17-year-old Coconut Grove student has helped patent a genetically engineered tomato designed to produce a compound associated with the flavor of meat.

Gabriella Rothberg, a senior at Ransom Everglades School, and her father, biotechnology entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg, are listed as inventors on U.S. Patent No. 12,668,806, issued June 30. The patent is assigned to Impossible Vines Inc., according to U.S. patent records.

The project aims to create tomatoes that produce heme, an iron-containing molecule that contributes to meat's characteristic flavor. Miami New Times reported on the project Tuesday, Oct. 13.

"So you'll bite into a tomato, and it'll taste like a hamburger," Gabriella told Miami New Times.

The concept remains experimental. The tomatoes have not undergone taste testing or entered commercial production, and researchers have not established whether they can deliver the intended flavor or nutritional benefits.

Sandwich idea to a biotechnology patent

Gabriella began exploring the idea at 15 while making a sandwich for her father. She wondered whether vegetables could taste like meat without first being processed into plant-based substitutes.

That question eventually became a research project called Impossible Vines.

Working with Maddison Marshall, a doctoral candidate at the University of Miami, Gabriella used a bacterium called Agrobacterium to introduce genetic material into tomato plant cells.

The goal is to enable the plants to produce heme, a compound associated with meat flavor. The patent also describes methods for modifying other plant characteristics, including lycopene content and seed production.

The research encountered setbacks. For months, the plants failed to develop as expected. After consulting University of Miami researchers, Gabriella and Marshall discovered that the vitamin concentration in their growth medium was incorrect.

Once they adjusted the formula, plant growth appeared within weeks, according to Miami New Times.

Gabriella also reported using artificial intelligence to help design genetic constructs, prepare patent materials and develop a business plan.

Scientific ambitions run in the family

Gabriella's interest in biotechnology follows a family tradition.

Her father, Jonathan Rothberg, helped pioneer next-generation DNA sequencing and received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama in 2016.

Her mother, Bonnie Gould Rothberg, is a cancer researcher at the University of Miami.

Gabriella told Miami New Times that conversations about evolution, astronomy and physics were common at the family dinner table.

Beyond creating a vegetable with meat-like flavor, Gabriella hopes the technology could eventually improve access to dietary iron in regions where meat is expensive or difficult to obtain.

She identified pregnant women in developing countries as one population that could potentially benefit from iron-enriched vegetables.

However, whether the engineered tomatoes can produce nutritionally significant quantities of bioavailable iron remains unproven.

The June patent establishes intellectual property rights for the described technology, but it does not demonstrate that the tomatoes taste like hamburgers or are ready for consumers.