At SML we research renewable and underutilized bio-based resources, with a focus on fungal, cellulosic, and proteinaceous feedstocks. These resources are deconstructed into fundamental units, which can then be reassembled into non-native hierarchical architectures. In addition to conventional materials engineering, we aim to harness the natural growth mechanisms of microorganisms, such as fungi, to direct the assembly of exogenous particles, colloids, and polymers into compositionally unique hybrids, promoting new configurations, functionality, and molecular-scale interactions, for a distinct class of materials grown to function.
Our lab is grateful for the support of the Chair in Sustainable Materials at the lnstitute of Materials of the School of Engineering of EPFL, co-funded by: BASF SE, Logitec, Nestlé and SIG Services AG.