IMX Talks - Using a genetic approach to develop mycelial materials

The vast majority of the world’s manufactured materials are nonrenewable and energy-intensive to produce. Viable alternatives must be developed, and “mycelial materials” made from filamentous fungi are an exciting option.  When compared with traditional materials, “mycelial materials” (i) have dramatically lower cost of production, (ii) are eminently sustainable, (iii) have the potential of performing tasks not possible with most traditional materials (e.g., self-replication, self-regulation, and self-healing), (iv) can assume a diverse range of mechanical properties (e.g., from leather, to foam, to wood), and (v) are suitable for additive manufacturing. Recently, companies manufacturing various mycelial materials (e.g., textiles, food products, packing foams, building supplies) have attracted hundreds of millions in commercial investment, and the global market is predicted to soon exceed $5 billion. While this industry is on the cusp of explosive growth, it is stuck using design practices developed thousands of years ago. For example, the current approach to modifying material properties is typically through trial-and-error, using different fungal species, altering nutrients used for growth, or changing the growth environment. Because it’s unclear how these inputs lead to specific changes in material properties, advances have been limited.

To address this limitation, we are leveraging modern genetic approaches to modify fungi. Our central hypothesis is that genetic means can be used to tune fungal morphological phenotypes, and that these phenotypes can be combined to enable the design of mycelial materials with specific sets of material properties. Initial studies have involved the model fungus, Aspergillus nidulans. We intially hypothesized that disabling the cell wall integrity (CWI) signaling pathway (responsible for wall repair; deletion of protein-kinase mpkA) would lead to weaker walled hyphae and result in weaker material. Surprisingly, material from an mpkA deletion strain (mpkA-) was significantly stronger than material generated from an isogenic control (mpkA+). Comprehensive phenotype testing implied increased material strength was due to lack of fungal developmental structures. Subsequent experiments, with developmentally-disabled strains (DbrlA, DflubA, DfluG) confirmed this. We will report on these and additional findings related to mycelial materials.

Bio: Dr. Marten graduated from Purdue Univ. with his PhD in Chemical Engineering, and completed postdoctoral work, first at NC State, then at Novozymes North America (now Novonesis). He has been on the faculty at UMBC since 1996 and is currently Chair of the Department of Chemical Biochemical and Environmental Engineering. In 1999 he won the NSF CAREER award, in 2007 he was honored with a Maryland Regents Award (the state’s highest achievement for faculty), and in 2023 he won the ACS Braude Award for his research involving students. In 2012 he started a biotechnology company (MycoInnovation, LLC) to commercialize his research findings.

Marten’s research is focused on systems biology and cellular engineering of fungi. In addition, he is developing cutting edge proteomic analysis tools for studying gene regulatory networks. And he has recently started a new research area to create sustainable materials from filamentous fungi. His work has been funded by NSF, NIH, the State of Maryland and a number of biotechnology companies and he has published 60+ papers in peer reviewed journals.

Dr. Marten is an exceptionally strong supporter of undergraduate research. For over 25 years, he has consistently hosted undergraduate researchers in his laboratory and has mentored over 100 undergraduates and high school students. Many of these have won prestigious research awards, and all have gone on to either excellent graduate programs or successful industrial careers.