Biofabrication is the use of biomaterials such as cells, proteins and organisms as building blocks in a manufacturing process.
Probably the best known example of biofabrication is the use of 3D printers to create tissue used in treatments for damaged joints and organs. This is still in the experimental stage.
But biofabrication is a much broader field with current, commercial applications, especially in the area of manufacturing.
For example, there's a whole industry creating packaging and other products using mushrooms - more specifically mycelium, which is the root structure of a mushroom.
The packaging is "grown" by culturing fungi on a medium of husk, hulls and woody biomass of agriculture waste, such as rice, soy and cotton.
The packaging material produced from this process is light, strong, durable and is naturally biodegradable. It's being used today by a variety of companies, including Ikea and Dell.
And it's not limited to packaging. Mushroom biofabrication can be used to make all kinds of products, with an example being the table shown below.
Ecovate, one of the leaders in mushroom biofab manufacturing, even has a store where G.I.Yers (grow it yourself) can purchase the materials needed to grow their own products as well as a range of already grown products.
Another interesting product being biofabricated is leather.
This is done using colonies of yeast bacteria which grow collagen that is then assembled into a fibrous material. It's then tanned and processed in a similar manner to regular leather.
Modern Meadow makes a biofabed leather they call Zoa. It looks and feels like leather, but can be custom designed to be stiff or stretchy, thick or thin, textured or glossy.
Thanks to advances in genetic engineering and biotech, biofabrication has moved from science fiction to practical, real world applications over the past decade. Expect to see more advances and more use of biofabed materials in the near future.
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