MycoMatters

Driven by the urgently needed shift towards a more sustainable economy, there is a rising interest in mycelium materials, of which vegetative fungal biomass is a main component. 

Recently, focus is placed on materials with leather- and textile-like appearance for applications in fashion, apparel, interior design and automotive sectors. Despite the great promise and global investments, there are still challenges pertaining to the development of a material that meets performance criteria while being fully biobased and biodegradable and to developing a scalable cost-efficient production process. These challenges are addressed in the project, which aims to develop a robust process for production of 100% biobased and biodegradable mycelium-based materials with improved properties, such as mechanical strength and flexibility, durability but also visual and sensory attributes. 

The project aims to develop a higher-throughput small-scale fermentation platform, based on liquid-state surface fermentation, accelerating the research by enabling a screening of various feedstocks and process conditions, in direct connection to material characteristics. Key innovations include the use of biobased additives, such as crosslinkers, to enhance material properties and the integration of a bacterial synthetic biology host in a co-cultivation approach to optimize cost-efficiency of the process and quality of the product. Collaboration with users will guide initial product development and help to determine optimal applications, thereby further orienting the research. An interdisciplinary research approach will be employed, combining expertise in microbiology, synthetic biology, materials science, chemistry, engineering and product development. Project results will contribute to the future development of new value chains that provide environmentally conscious consumers with a fully biobased and biodegradable new material aligned with the circular economy principles.

The task of Maastricht University is to improve the material properties of mycelium such as mechanical strength and flexibility, durability but also visual and sensory attributes.