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Every year, humans produce about 400 million metric tonnes of plastic waste, almost double what was produced in 2000. Unlike organic material, synthetic plastics are created to be resilient and hard to break down. This is what makes it a useful material, but also makes it extremely difficult to dispose of, contributing to a crisis that is unfolding before our very eyes. It is estimated that plastic material takes between 20 and 500 years to fully decompose. The “throw-away” culture that exists, coupled with a lack of effective waste management means there is almost nowhere on Earth where you will not find traces of plastic, including the deepest oceanic trenches and highest mountain tops. In 2022, microplastics were also discovered in human blood, and more recently traces have been found found inside human brains. To help give some perspective, it is estimated that the average person can consume between 78 000 and 211 000 microplastics every year. This is a staggering figure, and microplastic consumption has already been linked to global increases in infertility and incidence of other health defects. In March 2022, at the UN Environment Assembly, 175 countries agreed to end plastic pollution. There are numerous companies operating today such as Operation Clean Sweep and The Ocean Cleanup which are helping to remove and prevent plastic waste from entering the environment. However, with global plastic waste on the rise and decomposition rates exponentially exceeding production, a large and lucrative market has been created for a novel, innovative solution for plastic waste management. Governments and biotechs are investing in bioremediation, as the science of using living organisms to remove pollutants is known and proven, with the market expected to grow by $8.29 billion between 2023 and 2028. As is often the case in the recent biotechnological revolution, the answer to the plastic problem is being addressed through genetically manipulating bacteria, the most notable company pioneering the way being Carbios. In 2016, the plastic biorecyclicing field exploded into mainstream media, with the discovery of a new bacterial species: Ideonella sakaiensis. This bacteria was found by chance in a Japanese bottle recycling facility and found to contain the first known PETase enzyme, critical in breaking down PET, a widely used plastic. Most importantly for the bioremediation business model, the components the PET is broken down into are terephthalic acid and ethylene gloycol, the same ingredients needed to make more PET, hence the recycling capability. After further screens and some genetic engineering, Carbios made thier breakthrough in 2020 having found a mutant bacteria that could depolymerise 90% of PET in under 10 hours. The company announced this year they will be creating biorecycled plastic for L’Oréal and L’Occitane, aiming to recycle 50 000 tonnes of plastic annually (after the opening of their manufacturing plant in late 2025), equivalent to 20 billion plastic bottles. In August, Carbios also announced a partnership with a Northampton-based a recycling and waste management company, to build a similar plant in the UK. This is a huge and exciting move, showcasing how biotechnology can help solve some of the greatest challenges facing the future of humanity in the 21st century. Another company hoping to grab a slice of the market is Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company. Launched in April 2024, thier flagship product X-32 has been shown to degrade up to 90% of polyolefins, polyesters, and polyamides leaving behind carbon dioxide, water, and biomass in as little as 22 months. With further genetic edits, the team hope to make X-32 faster and more efficient, hoping to help solve the plastics crisis with no environmental impact. The team behind X-32 claim that the “biomass generated may also hold immense value in various industries. These molecules unveil potential for utilization in the production of biofuels, biodegradable plastics, and high-value chemicals.” The company has raised $10.5 million dollars in investment and are definitely one to watch in the future. With plastic waste being declared a global crisis by the UN and its impact being felt in both nature and human health, there is a large and lucrative market for a novel plastic waste management solution. I believe that biotechnology is the key to solving this problem and as the biotechnology revolution provides more weapons to the arsenal, I am excited about what the future holds and hopefully seeing a viable solution soon. Further Reading

Why did the mushroom get invited to the party? Because he was a fun-gi! The next time you take a walk through a forest consider that you may be walking above the ultimate green material of the future. The humble Mushroom mycelium may be the key to transforming the industrial sector in a move towards circular construction practices that also offer a host of other advantages over traditional materials such as mortar, brick and timber. So what is Mycelium? Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus that usually exists underground, essentially acting as the roots for a mushroom. It is made of a network of fine filaments called hyphae which interconnect to form a sort of web. The mycelium allow fungi to communicate with each other, share nutrients and break down organic matter which the fungus can then absorb as food. You might have seen Mycelium before as the fuzzy white, green, or black mass growing on mouldy food. At a first glance, this fungal network is easily discarded due to its association with gone-off food, but recently it has successfully been used in very practical applications such as eco-friendly packaging, footwear, furniture and leather alternatives. The fashion designer Emilie Burfeind has recently produced the “Sneature” which is a 100% biodegradable shoe made from biological waste materials and regenerative manufacturing. The sole is made from 3D printed mushroom mycelium and represents a glimpse into the sustainable fashion future as technology and nature fuse. The company Bolt Threads have engineered a process to “grow mycelium in a vertical farming facility powered by 100% renewable energy and transformed it into a material that looks and feels like animal leather”. They have partnered with brands such as Adidas and Lululemon to further drive the sustainable fashion trend forwards. MycoWorks have also developed a mycelium based leather called Reishi which can be incorporated into interior design and fashion. All these materials have been released recently and have quickly gained publicity and partnerships with global brands. It seems mycelium based-materials can revolutionise the fashion industry and things are just getting started. The construction sector also faces mounting pressure to integrate non-conventional materials into sustainable building practices as the rate of growth of the human population continues to rise. Circular constructions practices have emerged such as recycled tires and biodegradable glass, but mushroom mycelium aims to further disrupt this market as an innovative green building material. Ecovative made headlines in 2014 after unveiling a compostable tower made from Mycelium bricks at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The company claims to combat the scalability gap, market limitation and manufacturing crisis of legacy building materials by growing sustainable alternatives, mostly derived from mycelium. Although these bricks are promising, they are a long way off being used commercially. The compressive strength, durability and climate sensitivity of such materials when used in nature have been called into question and for now the use of mycelium as a building material is still experimental. One of the most innovative companies hoping to disrupt the market is RedHouse. Their Biocycler technology aims to combine building rubble/waste with bio-binders (including mycelium) to create new materials which can then be used to build houses. This machine aims to rapidly turn waste into new homes, helping to address environmental injustices and can be used as a rapid response to natural disasters. Interestingly, RedHouse also hope to one day build mycelium-based houses on Mars. This topic deserves its own post. Industry giants such as IKEA and Dell have also started to use mycelium in compostable packaging to reduce their reliance on polystyrene, thus reducing their carbon footprint. When combined with hemp, a water resistant and insulating material can be created which decomposes within 30 days. Ecovative are a leader in this sector, but many other companies are emerging, all hoping to claim some market share. Whilst the use of mycelium in construction is still in its experimental phase, its use as a sustainable, circular material in other applications such as packaging and fashion is better established. Whilst there are of course limitations which need to be addressed, the upsides of mycelium as a bio-based material are huge and numerous innovators are using their imagination to disrupt the market. The humble mushroom appears to to be spore-tastically placed at the forefront of the sustainable material revolution and it feels like this sector is just about to take off. Further Reading

Fireflies. Jellyfish. Fungi. Bacteria. All very different organisms that can share 1 common trait: Bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the ability for an organism to emit light. For decades it was just known to be a mesmerising phenomenon seen in nature with no apparent practical use. Films such as Avatar captured the sheer awe and beauty of a bioluminescent forest, whilst the whale scene in Life of Pi captured the same effect in a marine environment. Whilst the Avatar depiction is very much science fiction, bioluminescent plankton is a common phenomenon which can be seen in nature. Outside of nature, scientists have been isolating and using the bioluminescence gene as a powerful tool for studying transgenic organisms. More recently, this gene has also been used in bioluminescence-based imaging, neuron control and drug discovery. As technology and biological understanding advances, the grey area between science fiction and science fact is narrowing, and things which were once thought to only be possible through CGI are now becoming viable solutions to modern problems. A good example of this is using bioluminescent flora as a sustainable solution to urban lighting. Currently over 80% of the global population live in urban areas. With this comes rising energy demands which is both costly and not always sustainable. The sheer intensity of light in some urban areas is known to disrupt circadian rhythms of the natural wildlife and has been linked to increases in stress and fatigue of the people that live there. Coupled with a worldwide trend towards sustainable, green alternatives a market niche has appeared for inventive biotech companies that offer a novel alternative to traditional lighting. Bioluminescence occurs when a luciferase enzyme catalyses the oxidation of a light-emitting luciferin molecule which in turn produces a photon of light. This reaction is being harnessed in modern interior and urban design as an innovative lighting solution. Although the technology is still in its infancy, it appears to be a promising solution due to its host of advantages over more traditional lighting options. First, it is an inexhaustible resource as many of the organisms that can be used to emit light (e.g. Bacteria) can be cultivated indefinitely and with relative ease. The cost to “feed” the organisms would be comparatively lower than the cost of electricity and likely much greener. This can in theory significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse emissions as it circumvents the need to fossil fuels. The cost and effort to maintain such organisms would also likely be less than the cost or creating and replacing traditional light bulbs. Of course, aside from the more practical benefits, there are also aesthetics benefits to using bioluminescent light sources. Bioluminescence offers a unique visual experience, characterised by its ethereal glow and other-worldy appearance. The light is often considered calming as it provides a different sensory experience. Biolumiescent light sources are also less bright than LED alternatives, which could allow for a reduction in light pollution in densely populated areas, potentially allowing the stars to return to the night sky. Whilst there are many upsides to this lighting method, there are still several distinct challenges which prevent it from being a viable solution. One primary concern is the longevity and stability of the light output. Unlike light bulbs and LEDs, bioluminescence is an active process that relies on living organisms. To produce light consistently, these organisms have to be exist in suitable conditions, which include temperature, pH, oxygen levels etc and maintaining these levels will be complex and resource intensive. Probably the largest limiting factor to this novel technology is that the light produced by these organisms is generally lower than traditional artificial lighting, which will limit its potential applications. Whilst bioluminescent lighting may not be appropriate to replace street lightning, there may be a niche to incorporate it into furniture, or within houses. There are numerous companies which have tried to exploit this niche, to various degrees of success. The most notable of all these companies is the French start-up Glowee. Founded by Sandra Rey in 2014, Glowee makes biological lighting systems using transgenic bacteria to produce light. Sandra was placed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2017 and her natural lighting solution was trialled in the French town of Rambbouillet in 2019. Plastic tubes that contain marine microorganisms called Alivibrio Fisherii were integrated into the city in a deal worth £83,000 in an attempt to turn the town into a full-scale bioluminescence laboratory. The tubes emitted an Azure glow when oxygen is supplied through a pump, and the light can be turned off by simply turning off the oxygen pump. Glowee are currently expanding their range of offerings to hopefully include self-contained bioluminescent street furniture. The company claims that their sustainable solution consumes less energy in manufacturing than traditional energy-saving LED lights and at the same time require less energy and maintenance than traditional solutions on the market. That being said, the main downside is that the tubes only produce about 20% of the lumens per square metre than a traditional household LED. The company is experimenting with ways to increase the brightness of their light emitting bacteria, but for now there are some limitations which appear to be preventing more wide-spread full-scale adoption. Another very promising company which provides bioluminescent lighting solutions, alongside a host of other novel biotech inventions is Bioo. Founded in 2015, Bioo “envision a greener future through a real symbiosis between nature and technology aligned with the next technological revolution”. Host to numerous entrepreneurial awards, Bioo have 4 main focus areas: Bioo Lumina, Bioo Panel, Bioo Switch and Bioo Projects. In keeping with the theme of this post, Bioo Lumina is the most relevant, but the other areas are equally as exciting and innovative. Maybe this company deserves its own blog? Bioo Lumina currently has marketable 2 offerings, with an extra in development. NATURAL is an available offering that uses naturally bioluminescent fungi, integrated into environments in such a way to provide nighttime lighting. They are currently using 58

As the famous English novelist Lewis Carroll once said, “imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality”. For decades this has been true of science fiction books, films and TV series. These stories have captivated our imagination and fuelled our inner child as we dream up scenarios that are seemingly impossible to place in reality. So many children around the world grow up wishing they could swing a lightsaber, were receiving a letter on their 11th birthday inviting them to Hogwarts, or could travel through time and space. I was no exception to this. Whilst these ideas still seem firmly routed in science fiction, it is amazing how many have foreshadowed reality with surprising accuracy. Think for example of a touchscreen devices, or video calling, first introduced to screens in the 1960s in The Jetsons. We rarely stop to think about how these everyday items were unimaginable concepts to people like you and me, even as little as 60 years ago. When thinking of sci-fi, our brain normally conjures up images of technology and electronics, which for the most part is how it is depicted in media. However, it is these same advancements in technology that have also enabled breakthroughs in biology and medicine, which is where my curiosity and excitement about the future lies today. At school I studied Maths, Physics and Biology for A-Level and I always thought I would do engineering at University. One day I remember deciding to attend a biology lecture outside of school hours because I thought it would look good on my personal statement which I needed to apply to University. Little did I realise that this lecture would capture my imagination and drive my curiosity to this day. The lecture was the reason I studied biology, and the reason I have stayed adjacent to the field in my professional career. The lecturer started by outlining the different “modern human eras” as they saw it in their mind. They described how advancements in science & technology drove societal progression, as better ways of doing thing were discovered. This all starts with what is commonly referred to as the first manufacturing age: the industrial age. Following this was the machine age with the invention of engines and the discovery and extraction of oil from the ground. The invention of the nuclear bomb resulted in the nuclear age which also coincided with the space age as mankind dreamed to live amongst the stars. A bit later, the invention of the internet led to the information age where people began to be more connected and started to move online. Many would argue we are still in the information age, which has moved to the internet age where information is very readily available and people are better informed and educated as a result. Although you often debate how true this is the more you read the news. The lecturer argued that we are starting to move towards another true manufacturing age, this one called the Biological age. This is no small statement as a new manufacturing ages change everything. They change the way people earn a living, and what jobs are available. They change the dominant nations in the world and can even reshape whole industrial sectors. Think about how the UK was more of a dominant worldwide force during the Industrial age, and how big tech based in the USA is currently dominating the global markets. The emergence of AI and supercomputers are also making it easier and cheaper to find novel drug targets, whilst CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is allowing humans to essentially play God and re-structure genetic code. The very code of life. When you take a step back to realise what this means, you start to understand that there is really no limit to your imagination becoming a reality. In fact, often the limit is morals and ethics, not if the technology exists or not. This got me thinking about how these breakthroughs and new technologies could be harnessed to improve the world. Imagine walking home at night down a street lined with trees where all the leaves glowed in the dark, helping fix an energy crisis whilst also keeping you safer. Imagine a bush/ tree that rapidly grew into a 4-walled structure and could generate new rooms, providing a more affordable form of housing. Furthermore, imagine a plant with rapid regenerative properties that was constantly healing. This material could be used to pave roads, eliminating potholes and reducing maintenance efforts and costs. Whilst it is fun dreaming up these seemingly far-fecthed ideas, you would be surprised to learn how close they actually are to reality. I hope to shed light on some of the up-and-coming technologies and companies who are dreaming big and turning science fiction into reality. Hopefully the world will be a better place because of it.