SCIENce at open fung
Our scientific program advances transparent and accessible data, materials, methods and measures to enable decentralized applied mycology. We develop and share knowledge through collaborative networks, using the arts to deepen scientific understanding and inspire action.
Fungi have thrived on our planet for hundreds of millions of years and have evolved a remarkable array of capabilities. Wood-decay fungi in the mushroom-forming group hold particular promise for human innovation, but tools for working with them are particularly scarce. To help people create in partnership with these fungi, our science draws on craft mycology, mushroom farming, materials engineering, fungi in art practice, imaging, measurement, synthetic and molecular biology, computational modeling, and fungal biology, ecology and evolution.
Of the factors critical to shaping how fungi perform in biotechnology, we have launched research into fungal strain development and are expanding our efforts to qualify their food sources, the living and non-living aspects of their environments, and interactions with fungi as they grow.
what we are focusing on now
- Fungal strain development for biomaterial applications. Climate-friendly materials made with fungi are becoming a reality, and we are advancing open fungal strains domesticated for this purpose. Open Fung is developing the first utility mushrooms for making materials, supported with open genome data and enabled for redistribution and commercial use. These strains will be characterized for bioprocess performance and amenable to genetic modification.
- Versatile open tools for applied fungal biology. We want fungal biotechnology to become routine, predictable and ready for a wide range of applications for materials, food, medicines, bioremediation, the environment and beyond. We are creating open resources for the cultivation, imaging and measurements of beneficial fungi and substrates. Open data from our multiomics analyses across environmental conditions will train computational fungal models for different scales of space and time.
- Network-building. To enhance information sharing and cultivate an effective, inclusive fungal biotechnology community, Open Fung fosters a distributed network including research laboratories, citizen scientists and creative practitioners. We are working to create accessible platforms to share important knowledge, results and data.