We probably need to stop calling our event on Thursday Kombucha-Palooza, but we really want to celebrate this drink. It might be hipster swill, but there are a lot of reasons it represents a really cool biotechnology. Beyond the fact that brewing kombucha is a historically relevant system of fermentation, the SCOBY, symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast, that forms on the top of a kombucha culture can be used for a lot of interesting technologies.
In 2014, students from Imperial college used these SCOBY’s as a tool to try to help purify water to remove heavy metals in a project they called Aqualose. The concept is intriguing. Can we use this membrane produced by microbes to create a biotechnology capable of aiding us in the purification of clean drinking water? What are the implications of this technology for American cities facing lead contamination crises? To read more about Aqualose, visit their website.
Another use of the SCOBY is in fashion and bioart. One of my favorite works of bioart is Biocouture by Suzanne Lee. I don’t want to step on Lee’s words; she’s better at explaining her work than I am, but there’s so much potential for this material to revolutionize the fashion industry…soon. Lee talks about the strengths of this material (how easy it is to dye) and it’s weaknesses (Water-retention). We might not be there quite yet in terms of mass production, but maybe if we continue to work with this material we can get to the point where this is a workable textile.
We look forward to talking about this with you all on Thursday! This is going to be fun! https://www.meetup.com/ChiTownBio/events/258900173/