Composing Growth of Mycelium-based ELMs: Preliminary studies towards a generic production platform

In the context of mycelium-based ELMs, production challenges remain related to geometric approximation between design intent and production of complex 3D structures, reproducibility in morphological outcomes, scalar versatility in production and compositional versatility in cellular arrangement. A key objective of the FUNGATERIA project is to address these open challenges in the production of living materials through the development of a modular and generic condition-controlled manufacturing platform. We coin the term ‘growth composing’ to define the production activity and ‘Growth Composing Platform’ (GCP) to describe the technical setup.

Preliminary studies and results lay the foundation for further developments that will target the incorporation of additional control vectors for localised cellular differentiation using photonics, selective deposition of a bacterial co-cultivation partner, the coupling of a simulation and control engine to establish a digital design-to-production chain together with closed-loop controlled ELM production and the tuning of substrate compositions towards use-specific mechanical properties of the mycelium material.