How can fungi be used as building construction materials? This is what a recent study published in Cell Reports Physical Science hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how engineered living biomaterials (ELMs) can be advanced for sustainability purposes. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, city planners, and the public better understand how biomaterials can enable greener options for buildings, leading to a cleaner future.
For the study, the researchers examined how the fungi mycelium could be used for scaffolding materials, as previous studies demonstrated the former’s capabilities as materials for insulation and packaging. Mycelium is a well-known fungus that helps in nutrient cycling in soil and forest ecosystems. In the end, the researchers found that mycelium scaffolds successfully structural integrity for a four-week period at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
“We learned that fungal scaffolds are quite useful for controlling the internal architecture of the material,” said Dr. Chelsea Heveran, who is an assistant professor in the Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Department at Montana State University and a co-author on the study. “We created internal geometries that looked like cortical bone, but moving forward, we could potentially construct other geometries too.”
Along with being comprised of living cells, the advancement of ELMs has gained traction in the last few years due to their multifaceted characteristics, including self-healing, responsiveness, self-organization, and matrices that can be used for scaffolds, as demonstrated in this study. As a result, ELMs have a myriad of applications, including bacterial biofilms, bacterial cellulose, bioremediation, biosensors, and biomedical applications. As this study demonstrates, ELMs have the potential to advance the field of materials science by providing cheaper, but more reliable, building methods.
How will ELMs help advance sustainability building practices in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Cell Reports Physical Science, EurekAlert!, Nature Reviews Materials