Sustainable Style for Clean Growth
CO-GROWN



UKRI BBSRC Engineering Biology Mission Award


BioDesign Competition

OPEN CALL
Imperial College London, Tom Ellis and KY Labs,
Norhumbia University, Living Construction Group

                                       
                                                                     

                                                                    

                                                               

Co-Grown
BioDesign Competition
©

Groups


Imperial College London
Tom Ellis Group

  • Anupama Sarojini Prakash
  • Gianluca Prezza

Koon-Yang Lee Group

  • Joanne Li

Northumbria University
Living Construction

Meng Zhang Group

  • Jessica Virginia
  • Reeba Thomas
  • Weronika Turowska

Paul James Group

  • Mingailė Jackson

Design Technical Support

  • Linda Lightley 

















                                                                    
         

About the project


This Engineering Biology Mission Award project uses engineering biology to advance bacterial cellulose (BC) as a sustainable alternative to bovine leather, with the aim of compressing production into minimal processing steps while dramatically reducing environmental impact. Since the project began, teams at Northumbria University and Imperial College London have been engineering and co-culturing microbes to enable in situ dyeing, biobased material enhancement, and production of BC from industrial waste streams, working closely with industry partners including Modern Synthesis, Colorifix, and Brewlab.


Technical Summary

Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) is an emerging research area where synthetic biology is used to make new materials that benefit from the technologies of living cells. By reprogramming cells like E. coli and cellulose-producing bacteria, novel materials with advanced functionalities and properties can be efficiently grown at scale. Here, using our expertise in synthetic biology and bacterial cellulose (BC) ELMs, we use engineering biology to transform how BC leather is produced and how it can move beyond the limitations of bovine or plastic-based "vegan" leathers.





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