Team:Cornell/project/hprac/ecovative

Collaboration with Ecovative

Summary

Our collaboration with Ecovative proved challenging yet rewarding. Since few iGEM teams have partnered with a corporation in the past, we were faced with the task of developing a new approach to safely applying our research in synthetic biology to a consumer-ready product. Ecovative supported our efforts by giving us tours of their facilities and advice on protoplasting fungi. They also offered to grow our strains and conduct material testing on our genetically engineered product. Ecovative will soon implement our research once it reaches completion.

Ecovative

Our research is inspired by Ecovative Design, a company in upstate New York that manufactures a biodegradable Styrofoam substitute. The company uses fungal mycelium to knit together various agricultural byproducts, such as dead wheat, dry grass, and corn husks. The final product is an insulating, waterproof, foam-like solid that decomposes one month after it's been buried in soil.

Ecovative's mission is to eventually replace all Styrofoam products with their eco-friendly material. To date they have partnered with Dell Inc., Steelcase Inc., Ford Motors, Puma, and a few other companies to build alternatives to their current Styrofoam products. The company has received grants from the EPA, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, and the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute. Ecovative was also honored with the DEC's 2012 Environmental Excellence Award and the DuPont Packaging Innovation Award. Their product won the PICNIC Green Challenge, which is the world's largest prize for solutions addressing climate change.

The product that we are seeking to improve, known as Mushroom Packaging, is a sustainable and necessary alternative to Styrofoam. Polystyrene can take hundreds of years to degrade in landfills and produces dozens of identified chemical toxins upon combustion, thus posing difficulties for disposal. Recycling of Styrofoam is incredibly inefficient at all levels; it suffers from low rates of recovery from consumers as most cities do not accept it for recycling, it is expensive to sort and transport to the appropriate specialized processing plant, and the actual process of recycling it involves high temperature and pressure conditions that consume large amounts of energy. Ecovative’s alternative requires only two feedstocks, fungal inoculum and sterilized plant matter, both of which readily degrade in the environment. The fungi used in their products are not typically used for food purposes and can be easily isolated and grown in controlled conditions. The feedstocks can include any form of plant matter, as cellulose is the key component needed in the final product, but the material properties vary with the feedstock. They have found that dense materials like stalks and seed husks, under-utilized components of agricultural waste, are optimal for their production. In this way, they are able to avoid using components that are in higher demand, such as food crops or even compost. For these and other considerations, their product has been granted the Cradle to Cradle Gold Certification.

History of Corporate Partnerships

The iGEM organization has a strong history of developing tools to support industries in need. However, most of these results are lost post-competition as a result of a lack of funding and awareness. We believe that one of the novelties of our project is the direct collaboration with a corporation and the continuation of the genetically engineered product after competition. Our work with Ecovative ensures that Organofoam will continue solving a pressing environmental issue.

In previous years, teams have received corporate sponsorships but have rarely found a company willing to insert their research into a consumer market. Last year, our team had a very close relationship with the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative. OSLI is a collaborative network of companies operating in the Canadian oil sands that sponsored iGEM teams to develop new technologies to address challenges in oil sands extraction and reclamation. Teams had the opportunity to submit their research as a solution to Canada’s current oil sands problems. Although some teams did receive recognition from OSLI, the work has yet to make an impact on the current issues facing the OSLI corporations. Teams have also attempted partnerships with local farms, technology groups, and breweries, but have yet to successfully market their research to any of these companies.

Some iGEM teams believe they can use their research to promote a nonprofit organization. In 2012, the Wellesley team partnered with the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and encouraged the development of software tools to advance the way medical patients interact with computers. The team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison worked with a Great Lakes research center to increase awareness of pollution in the lakes. These cooperative efforts between teams and nonprofits promote the iGEM foundation’s mission as a nonprofit organization. However, they usually end after the competition along with the projects.

With the support of company, we are confident that our work will continue to have a positive effect on Ecovative’s manufacturing process and, as a result, the environmental issue of Styrofoam pollution.