Insights
Startup’s no-kill cellular fur could be a fashion gamechanger
Fur has proven to be among the most difficult textiles to imitate synthetically. Now, Dutch company Geneus Biotech has grown the real thing. Under the brand name FUROIDTM, it has produced a 2cm by 2 cm swatch prototype of the…
Printed organs and the search for the perfect bioink
It was in the late eighties that scientists first envisaged a merger between 3D printing and tissue engineering. At their intersection lay the possibility of machine-manufactured organs and tissue. Bioprinting technology remained a distant prospect until the 2010s, when researchers…
How seaweed agtech can ease the fertiliser crisis
In 2010, California-based KZO Sea Farms received a permit for developing an offshore mariculture facility in US federal waters. Recently, the company was inspired by an Indonesian pilot study to develop a path-breaking offshore cultivation technique for seaweed. Its innovation…
Sensors go bio for clothes and medicine
Biosensors are instruments that detect the presence of specific molecules in just about any medium, even at trace concentrations. This capability relies on biological receptors housed inside them which chemically interact with target compounds on contact. These receptors are usually…
Bio-adhesives for boxes, body parts, and automotives
Glues may make up a relatively small proportion of individual products. Yet with around 14.7 million tonnes produced globally each year, the environmental impacts of adhesives add up. The solvents in liquid glues contaminate soil and groundwater while many wood…
Bioreactors today: challenges and innovations
Bioreactors are vessels where microorganisms, stem cells, or specialised cells are cultivated into functional materials. The oldest and simplest examples are containers used for baking bread or fermenting wine. Over the last twenty years, however, they have become sophisticated instruments…