What's new at BioQ? Fungi coasters and tiny reactors for a start...

Thursday evenings have been anything but quiet down at our Brunswick labs in 2025. BioQuisitive team members Andrew and Beth have been helping our citizen scientists get their (gloved) hands into some of our new projects.

You can join in too! Drop by to join in the fun at our community lab nights on a Thursday between 4pm and 7pm.

Sustainable materials using the power of fungi

Beth has been working with our community scientists to make sustainable materials using a fungi scaffold called mycelium. Beth says:

"We're making coasters in the lab, but depending on what mold you use, you can make a whole load of different things. We are also experimenting with making key rings!"

The coasters are made by mixing mycelium with grain, but they can also be made with sawdust and other by-products that would otherwise go to waste. The goal is to make sustainable building materials that are suitable for larger projects like soundproofing, which also reduce landfill and contribute to the circular economy.

Citizen scientists have their own mycelium coaster to take home

A pioreactor in action!

From little things, big things grow: test in a mini bio-reactor before you scale up

Andrew has been working with our citizen scientists to explore how to use the pio-reactors in the BioQuisitive lab. These bio-reactors grow cultures of only 40 millilitres, which is about two tablespoons.

This tiny bio-reactor is powered by a small computer known as a raspberry pi. It means you can start working out the best experimental conditions at a much smaller scale, saving time and reagent costs.

Massive bioreactors are used in academic and industry labs to grow cell cultures up to 1000s of litres that produce things like vaccines and cancer treatments. To get the growing conditions like temperature, time and growth media just right, you need to start a lot smaller. These cute, tiny bioreactors let you do that cheaply and quickly before you need to start scaling up.

We're just getting going for 2025 and we already have people dropping by to see what new projects we have in store this year. Whether it's their first time or 50th time, we just love working with people who are curious about science and want to learn how it's done. We hope to see you soon!