Engineers at MIT and the U.S. Army Research Lab have developed what they call Syn-SCOBY, a living material made from laboratory yeast and bacteria. Similar to a kombucha mother, it is a tough cellulose material that researchers say can be used to purify water and detect pollutants. They envision Syn-SCOBY being used in the biomedical field and for food applications.
“We foresee a future where diverse materials could be grown at home or in local production facilities, using biology rather than resource-intensive centralized manufacturing,” said associate professor Timothy Lu, of MIT’s departments of biological engineering and electrical engineering and computer science.
Read more (MIT)