What do you get if you put a bunch of scientists and designers together in one room? Well, no joke, that’s what. Though when Suzanne Lee, Founder and CEO of Biofabricate, first pitched the idea of growing materials for fashion using bacteria back in 2003, it was considered one. The design-trained serial TED-talker tells me that her fashion colleagues thought she’d ‘lost her mind’.
Lee recognised early on that the missing pieces belonged to the same puzzle. The mind of the scientist and the designer work in marvellously different ways. Put them together and the natural result is growth, or grown materials. But without forging collaboration between science and design, the problem will remain unsolved. In short, they need each other.
“We needed a forum that brought together emerging technologies, academia and startups, with the creatives at brands and investors that would be essential to powering a material revolution. That’s why I started Biofabricate in 2014,” Lee tells me.
And like when Harry met Sally, when Lee met her now Chief Design Officer Dr. Amy Congdon (whose Ph.D fused textiles and tissue engineering), both parties ended up in New York City with big dreams for the future. Only the future Lee and Congdon dreamt of was biofabrication.
One decade, eight summits and a Material Revolution later (which Lee remains humble over catalysing), and companies are raising millions to fund the scaling of materials grown from living organisms. Many of the key encounters behind such partnerships took place at Biofabricate summits along the way.
On January 10-12th, the annual summit was held in Paris for the first time at the carefully selected Fondation Fiminco, an ex-pharmaceutical fermentation factory (very fitting). Its location was strategic. “After a decade of hosting the event in New York (and once in London), it was time to bring it to the heart of Europe and the home of so many influential brands,” says Dr. Congdon. “Europe is leading the way in regards to regulation and the global brands based here are expanding their innovation and sustainability teams to match this. As a result these brands are the best placed to bring these new bio innovations to market.”
With over 50 exhibitors, thirteen sponsors including luxury giant Kering, Parley For The Oceans and Mycoworks and a two-day stage schedule, it was Biofabricate’s largest summit yet. To say nothing of several product launches including Mycoworks and Ligne Roset’s mycelium leather collection, and VivoBarefoot and Balena’s 3D-printed compostable trainer (a duo who met at a past summit).
“As the field continues to evolve and mature, so do the relationships in this space, and it is these collaborations that the Biofabricate Summit aims to encourage and nurture,” says Dr. Congdon.
A two-day stage programme packed full of pioneers welcomed conversations and dialogues covering biosolutions, heritage and evolution, agriculture, regeneration, regulation, communication, investment, scalability and commercialisation.
Jean-Marie Gigante, Director of Tannery at Kering, Géraldine Vallejo, Sustainability Programme Director at Kering, Maurizio Montali, Co-Founder of and Chief Mycelium Officer at SQIM, and Lee took to the stage to talk about using biotechnology to create materials fit for the luxury industry. The conversation then shifted onto the nature of partnerships necessary for change, considering the collaboration between Kering and SQIM for the Balenciaga mycelium leather jacket in 2022. In January, Kering announced that it had invested in SQIM, bringing the startup’s Series A funding to a close. Montali likened these dynamic relationships to the technicality of microbial systems. Vallejo described SQIM’s material Ephea™ as having a certain “je ne sais quoi” that changed her mind about mushroom materials altogether.
We heard Katarzyna Bałucka-Dębska, Senior Advisor at Climate-KIC (who was previously on the European Commision), on EU green deals, social challenges and system changes necessary to meet ESGs.
Nicolaj Reffstrup, Founder of Ganni/Look Up Ventures, discussed integrating new approaches into existing infrastructures and Ganni’s journey from Scandi chic to a leading name in sustainable fashion with Sarah Kent, Chief Sustainability Correspondent at Business of Fashion. Kent quizzed Reffstrup on the business risk involved in the decision to cut out all virgin leather at Ganni by the end of last year as a brand which made 20% of its revenue from leather goods. “It was about preferring action to perfection. It was what we had to do to meet our responsibility targets which pertained to all different areas of our business. And one was reducing our carbon footprint. If we wanted to do that, we had to cut virgin leather,” he replied. “It wasn’t a question.”
“By gathering these innovations and brands together in a dialogue, it’s a powerful educational platform for all,” says Lee.
The three floor exhibition space hosted startups embracing microbially-derived ingredients from across the spectrum in funding, facility and focal point.
Material alternatives for leather that evade the use of animal skins and harmful chemicals are imagined in wildly different ways. Gozen, which has recently collaborated with Balenciaga for a jacket made of Gozen’s alternative leather LUNAFORM™, uses microbial fermentation of bacteria to produce a cellulosic leather-like sheet material which can be tanned and finished. Pact transforms waste collagen from the food industry into a leather alternative. SQIM, which has just raised 11 million euros in funding, ferments mycelium for Ephea™. Polybion ferments bacteria from agroindustrial fruit waste into a bacterial cellulose leather alternative CELIUM™, a material which was recently used to make a blazer in partnership with Ganni last year.
Other innovators hone in on fibres, yarns and traditional textiles, considering the environmental impacts of excessive water usage, soil nutrient degradation and chemical usage from fertiliser to finish. Spiber is microbially fermenting GMO bacteria and sugar to produce a protein polymer that is then spun into fibre filaments known as Brewed Protein™, this process is designed to scale. Solena is developing novel proteins via computational design, machine learning and automation to optimise quality and performance. Meanwhile Keel Labs is extracting biopolymers from dried and cured kelp, transforming them into an intermediate which can then be spun into fibres and yarn.
SWAY and Matereal are tackling the plastic problem. SWAY uses seaweed to create a melt processable resin for clear, flexible packaging films in bags’ while Matereal reacts carbon dioxide emissions with linseed, soybean, algal and food waste oils to form plastic monomers which when combined with biobased chemicals form a plastic material.
Holistic thinking is self-evident and Biofabricate’s innovators celebrate the entire supply chain. There’s no such thing as waste, as Arda Biomaterials demonstrate by transforming spent grains from beer production waste into leather-like material. And, carbon emissions? Yeh, we can use those too, says OurCarbon, sequestering carbon and using energy neutral pyrolysis to turn organic wastes into material additives and black pigments that can be used to colour everything from textiles to bioplastics.
The Unilever-acquired K18 (which you may know from TikTok), BIOWEG and InSempra all exhibited wellness, cosmetic, fragrance and beauty ingredients and products.
The Design Lab, a curated collection of cosmetics, dyes and pigments, finish and processing additives, and leather technology alternatives, showcased the promise of lab scale, early stage and pre-seed innovations. Here we saw BioPuff® by Ponda, a thermally insulating alternative to down materials, extracted from bulrush plants in a process that aids in the regeneration of biodiverse wetlands and subsequently their ecosystems; Pitri’s mycelium-derived cosmetic pigments; Radiant Matter’s biofabricated sequins and Pneuma’s live microalgal fabrics that capture carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis.
The collective epitomises how biofabrication and biomaterials extend far beyond textiles and garment industries onto beauty, chemicals, construction, interior, automotive. Biofabrication highlights not only how critical but also how possible it is to collaborate trans-industry.
“The summit gives exposure to innovators from around the world to leading brands and groups, such as Kering, along with investors who understand the needs of this space,” says Lee, continuing, “For investors and brands the summit provides a valuable landscape analysis of innovation enabling them to make decisions about who to support, where to invest, and to discover new innovation that they have yet to know.”
Biofabrication has taken its time to transition from petri dish to promise and onto scalable product. Given the immediacy with which so many industries tend to act, this can be detrimental when it comes to funding as investors are deterred by long, laborious and high cost R&D.
Recent years have seen several big names go under including BoltThreads, which has previously partnered with Stella McCartney, Adidas and Kering, colouring the market precarious and investors nervous. But as regulations tighten, companies are in need of solutions and, while we’re not yet out of the woods, continued support from luxury giants such as Kering and a perpetuity of product launches and partnership announcements, the future of biofabrication is hopeful.
This in mind, there are a few things to consider; some key takeaways, if you will. Firstly, innovation does not happen overnight, this is a new genre of materials built from science with new characteristics and properties. It needs time – hold tight, enjoy the ride, it’s definitely one to watch. Secondly, scalability is tough, expensive and investment therefore critical, and it’s on this that the future of this realm teeters. Until these materials are scaled and integrated into mainstream manufacturing, the difference they can make is hypothetical. Thirdly, naturally, industry is competitive and industriousness is fueled by competition, a phenomenon to which collaboration is arguably the enemy. But, as the Biofabricate team clocked long ago, partnerships are key and creative collaboration is the future. And, finally, regulation. Without regulation, legislature and policy, a green future is nothing more than a nice idea.