Team:Cornell

Project

Our current project involves fungal genetic engineering, an underexplored area of research, with specific applications in biomaterials development. Fungal biomaterials offer the potential to create a wide range of environmentally sustainable, useful products, as evidenced by Ecovative Design, a company in upstate New York that uses this technology to create packaging materials that serve as a Styrofoam substitute. Reducing or eliminating Styrofoam waste could have a huge positive impact on the environment – efforts are already being made to recycle Styrofoam, design alternatives, and reduce its use in large cities. Our interactions with Ecovative have revealed a need for genetic tools to improve the efficiency of the production process and further enhance the material properties of the product. To this end, we are working to develop a toolkit of modular genetic constructs for modifying basidiomycetes, using the medically-relevant, filamentous fungus Ganoderma lucidum as a model organism. In addition to creating a library of tools for fungal genetic modification, we are developing constructs for the production of antifungal agents targeting specific mold pathogens, as well as pigments from the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in E. coli. This work is groundbreaking in our efforts to engineer a complex, basidiomycotic fungus and to work in direct partnership with a corporate partner.