Bioinspired Materials

Dear Colleagues,

In 2020, the global consumption of raw materials reached over 90 billion tonnes, while greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the production of materials as a share of global GHGs increased from 15% in 1995 to 23% in 2015. The European building construction sector accounts for 42% of total energy consumption, 38% of total greenhouse gas emissions, 50% of extracted materials and 30% of water consumption. Today, it is clear that we need to transition to a circular economy model to lower the pressure on natural resources and to reduce the overall GHG emissions. This is also a prerequisite to achieve the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target. To tackle the impacts of construction and other materials-intensive industries on climate change, we need to find alternative sustainable and resource-efficient materials.

In this context, mycelium, the root structure of filamentous fungi, is investigated as a natural self-assembling binder to produce environmentally friendly materials for different industrial applications, mainly construction, furniture, packaging and textile industries. However, challenges arise regarding reproducibility, durability and mechanical strength.

In this Special Issue, we invite experts in the field to contribute to current research trajectories and share their knowledge and findings for further enrichment of the field. We invite biologists, bioengineers, mycologists, material scientists, food scientists, computer scientists, architects and experts from other relevant fields to present their findings on the various applications of engineered mycelium materials.

Dr. Nazanin Saeidi
Dr. Alireza Javadian
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• engineered mycelium
• engineered living materials
• biomaterials
• bioinspired engineering
• biofabrication