Sustainable leather replacements are becoming highly sought after. A team from Newcastle University and Northumbria University has developed a self-healing mycelium-based leather substitute using the Ganoderma lucidum fungus. Mycelium is a thread-like structure produced by some types of fungus. Fungal colonies can produce intertwining branching mycelium mats that can be treated to produce a material known as mycelium leather.
The mycelium leather prepared by the researchers differs from that typically produced in that it contains chlamydospores that allow the material to regenerate given the right conditions. The researchers developed a process to produce the mycelium leather using temperatures and chemicals that allowed the material to become leather-like without destroying the chlamydospores within.
The mycelium leather had similar properties to mycelium leather typically produced, but differed in that, when the material was damaged and then placed in a solution containing nutrients suitable for fungal growth, the revived chlamydospores produced more mycelium that repaired the areas of damage.
See here for the academic paper published by the researchers on their findings.
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