Delighted to announce that I will be working alongside colleagues from HBBE on a new interdisciplinary research project that aims to develop efficient biofabrication processes for textiles using waste as a feedstock to produce new materials from fungal mycelium.
The aim of the project is to develop enzymes that are capable of degrading waste textiles (e.g., cotton, PET, Nylon etc) into a low-cost substrate for the production of mycelium leather.
The project seeks to address the problem of post consumer textile waste. Currently 73 % of textile waste is sent to landfill or incinerated and this research seeks to discover new enzymes by starting at these sites of waste accumulation.
Enzymatic upcycling of textile waste into biodegradable mycelium leather
Investigators: Paul James (PI), Jane Scott, Gary Black, and Meng Zhang
This Project is funded by BBSRC.
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