A Dress Made from Living Fungus Can Repair and Renew Itself

Dezeen reports on a prototype dress made from a living fungal textile that can renew its surface, repair damage and eventually biodegrade in soil.

Researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology created the material from the mycelium of Cordyceps militaris. Unlike many mycelium-based materials, the manufacturing process does not kill the fungus. The cells remain metabolically active inside a flexible sheet softened with glycerol.

That allows the textile to behave more like a living system than a conventional fabric.

When nutrients are applied to its surface, new aerial fibers grow in selected areas. The researchers used this process to renew the surface and create patterns. A damaged section could be filled with fresh fungal pellets, supplied with moisture and nutrients, and regrown until the new mycelium bridged the gap.

The team also added other microorganisms to give the material new properties. Engineered yeast produced colors inside the textile, while a melanin-rich fungus created a layer that absorbed ultraviolet radiation. Its dense surface fibers also repelled droplets, giving the material self-cleaning behavior.

At the end of its useful life, a test object made from the material degraded almost completely after 41 days in soil.

This is much more interesting than replacing leather or synthetic fabric with another passive material. The researchers are treating the textile as a programmable biological platform that can grow, respond to damage and acquire new functions through other living organisms.

The dress remains a laboratory prototype. It has not been tested for comfort, repeated washing, abrasion or ordinary daily wear. The researchers currently see more practical potential in temporary clothing, exhibitions, biodegradable packaging and other short-lived products where rapid decomposition is an advantage.

Even with those limitations, it offers a remarkable alternative to how we manufacture things now.

Instead of extracting a material, chemically treating it, wearing it out and throwing it away, we may eventually grow products that can repair themselves and safely return to the environment when they are no longer useful.

Read “Dress made from living mycelium can renew and repair itself.”