Fungateria: Enlisting synthetic fungal-bacterial consortia to produce multi-cellular mycelium-based ELMs with computational capability

Fungateria通过开发由丝状真菌和细菌菌株组成的合成共培养联合体组成的榆树组合，解决了菌丝体榆树的发展差距。利用真菌菌丝的感应和自适应生长来开发一种自下而上的可扩展的制造技术，称为生长合成(GC)，该技术能够使用机器人控制的喷嘴来实现菌丝材料的工程化形态发生，该喷嘴产生局部的空气、气体或气溶胶流动来引导菌丝生长。此外，在整个生产过程中，生物打印被用于在特定的模式和特定的时间存储工程菌菌株的接种物。各种榆树产品被开发出来，从消费品到环境和建筑部门的应用，这些产品通过光、温度和化学诱导剂的环境线索而变得活跃。为此，将实施合成生物工程，将细菌菌株用作含有传感器的遗传电路的底盘，通过直接活动或通过影响真菌配对的生长和形态，在榆树的整个生命周期中为榆树提供先进的功能。ELM的活动通过揭示材料中的生物电信号的探测器得到验证--作为活跃的计算设备，提供了额外的控制、监测、功能和开发维度。当不再需要或已经达到生产寿命结束时，杀死开关由人类控制的环境触发器或系统本身的触发器激活，从而导致榆树完全快速降解，而不会对环境造成任何负面影响。在整个Fungateria项目中，将建立一个社会对话，以不断使研究目标与伦理和法规要求保持一致。

Fungateria addresses a development gap in mycelium-based ELMs by developing a portfolio of ELMs that are composed of a synthetic co-cultivation consortium of a filamentous fungus and a bacterial strain. Sensing and adaptive growth of the fungal hyphae are exploited to develop an autonomous bottom-up and scalable manufacturing technology called Growth Composing (GC) that enables an engineered morphogenesis of mycelium materials using robotically controlled spray nozzles that generate local air, gas or aerosol flows steering hyphal growth. In addition, bioprinting is used to deposit inocula of the engineered bacterial strain in specific patterns and at specific times throughout the production process. Various ELM products are developed, ranging from consumer goods to applications in the environmental and construction sector, which become active through environmental cues of light, temperature and chemical attractants. To this end, synthetic biology engineering will be implemented to use the bacterial strain as a chassis for sensor-containing genetic circuits that render advanced functionalities to the ELM throughout its life cycle, either through direct activity or by influencing growth and morphology of the fungal partner. ELM activity is verified with probes that reveal bio-electric signaling in the materials - providing additional dimensions of control, monitoring, functionality and exploitation as actively computing devices. When no longer needed or having reached the end of their productive life, kill switches are activated either by human-controlled environmental triggers or triggers of the system itself, thereby causing the ELM to fully and quickly degrade without causing any negative environmental impact. Throughout the Fungateria project, a societal dialogue will be established to continuously align research objectives with ethical and regulatory requirements.