Academic Challenge: Future Food Phase 1 Participants

BioMADE is pleased to announce the participants in Phase 1 of its Department of Defense-sponsored Academic Challenge for the adoption and awareness of biomanufactured foods. This Academic Challenge brings together students from universities and community colleges around the common goal of providing students with practical research experiences that promote creativity, critical thinking, and technical innovation, while developing career pathways in the emerging bioindustrial manufacturing sector.

The Academic Challenge is engaging teams to propose, design, and explore solutions for biomanufactured production of foodstuffs based on these scenarios:

• Food scarcity in rural and urban environments

• Bioproduced food for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

• Nutritional requirements for mobile troops deployed in austere conditions

• Long duration military base or limited space environments

The Phase I teams and their projects are:

• Leveraging Agricultural Waste Streams to Cultivate Aspergillus oryzae into a Nutritional Source for Rural and Urban Food Deserts

  By repurposing large local waste streams and leveraging otherwise discarded agricultural byproducts, this project will look at cultivating A. oryzae – a filamentous fungi with demonstrated food-grade potential – into a final product that is low-cost, delicious, and nutritional.

  Team: University of California, Davis and Sacramento City College

• Submerged Fermentation of Mushroom Mycelium for Optimizing the Production of Mycelial-Based Food and Nutritional Products

  This study will investigate methods for optimizing the production of fungal mycelial biomass and mycelial-based macromolecules in submerged fermentation systems.

  Team: Finger Lakes Community College and National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

• Novel Modular Bioreactors for On-Site Biomanufacturing of Microalgae-Based Super Foods in Long-Duration Military Base

  By providing an on-site photobioreactor design for producing microalgae-based foods for soldiers in military environments, this project will deliver high protein foods with a complete essential amino acid profile.

  Team: University of Connecticut and Roxbury Community College

• Cultivating Sustainability: Bioreactor Design for Cellulose Conversion

  This project will construct a benchtop bioreactor capable of turning switchgrass into edible food products.

  Team: North Carolina A&T State University and University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Towards Sustainable Production of Vitamin B12 in Bioengineered Cyanobacteria for Nutritional Enrichment During Interplanetary Travel

  In order to address challenges related to interplanetary travel such as limited food supplies, this project will explore modifying a cyanobacteria species to serve as a renewable food source and assist in CO2 sequestration and oxygen generation.

  Team: University of Kansas, Edwards and Kansas City Kansas Community College

• Big Island Fermentation: Fermentation to Improve Nutrition, Community Health, Security, and Cultural Preservation

  Through novel bioprocess development and exploring new fermentation approaches for native Hawaiian foods, this project will provide better nutrition, improve community health, maintain and support indigenous culture, and enhance food security.

  Team: University of Hawaii, Hilo and Hawaii Community College

• Portable Unit Food Fermenter

  By developing the necessary microorganisms and bioprocesses for a field-deployable single-use system, this project will explore creating individual mobile, sterile, single-use fermentation systems to manufacture food in situ.

  Team: The Ohio State University and North Central State College

These projects will drive adoption and awareness of biomanufactured food, expose a diverse group of students to career options in bioindustrial manufacturing, and generate new and innovative ideas for the biomanufacturing of foods. Stay tuned for developments from the project teams!

Teams in bold have advanced to Phase II.

Distribution A: Approved for public release: distributed unlimited. AFRL-2024-4230