Students Advance to Final Phase of Biomanufactured Food Challenge
A team of students, comprising undergraduate engineering students from the University of California, Davis, and students from Sacramento City College, or SCC, have advanced to the final phase of the BioMADE Academic Challenge: Future Foods with their research on repurposing agricultural waste into food using fungi.
The group is one of five teams selected by BioMADE to present their research in Washington, D.C., in February. BioMADE is a manufacturing innovation institute funded by the U.S. Department of Defense whose mission is to enable a sustainable national bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem.
Forming the Team
The challenge asked interdisciplinary, multi-collegiate undergraduate teams to propose, design and explore solutions for biomanufactured foodstuffs for use in such scenarios as food scarcity in rural and urban environments, disaster relief and limited space environments.
Distinguished Professor Emerita of Chemical Engineering Karen McDonald of UC Davis initiated putting together a team for the competition, with help from UC Davis colleagues Ruihong Zhang, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering, McDonald’s lab partner Somen Nandi, an adjunct faculty member of chemical engineering and the founder and managing director of the UC Davis Global Healthshare Initiative, and Justin Wong, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering.
McDonald was connected with Jessica Coppola, a professor of nutrition and food science at SCC, to form a cohesive undergraduate team of students from both a four-year university and a community or technical college. Coppola says she jumped at offering her students such a rare opportunity to do hands-on research.
“There aren’t many opportunities for research at the community college level,” she said. “One of the students hadn’t set foot in a lab other than high school biology. Getting our students onto a university campus, working with things like bioreactors and fume hoods, can have such an impact on their future success when they transfer.”
Fungus as Future Food
The students worked over the summer on the challenge, guided by Wong. Their goal: Use agricultural byproducts (think: coffee grounds or almond hulls) to cultivate the fungus Aspergillus oryzae into a food source for rural and urban areas.
The team, called Team Nuryzae (a portmanteau of “nutrition” and “oryzae”), identified four agricultural items for initial testing: almond hulls, lentil whey, black bean whey and dairy whey. They first screened the culture conditions in a shake flask, assessing the pH levels and growth parameters. From there, they selected the best performers — black bean and dairy whey — to test in bioreactors.
The students were able to use the 2-liter bioreactors at Davis-based food startup Optimized Foods, which was one of several industry partners that had the students for tours. Others included biomaterials company Checkerspot, Pow.bio, The Better Meat Co. and the UC Davis pilot winery, brewery and food processing plants. The students also attended events hosted by the UC Davis Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein, or iCAMP, including research seminars and networking events. Wong says the tours were particularly inspiring.
“Being able to go on these industry tours really contextualized a lot of the work these students are doing in class and showed how it’s being implemented,” said Wong. “Getting to see how these different companies are trying to support the bioeconomy really opened them up to the idea that there are so many possibilities in the bioindustry.”
Cyrus Ordoubadian, an undergraduate student in biomedical engineering, agreed, describing the industry tours as “eye-opening.”
“Getting to see the commercial labs and innovators of different backgrounds, seeing the cross-pollination of ideas first-hand and people who viewed their work with a profound passion was so exciting,” said Ordoubadian.
Looking Back, Moving Forward
As they prepare to present their research in Washington, D.C., Wong reflects on the students’ initiative and drive for the project, as well as how much they have learned and grown.
For instance, Matthew Tsang, an undergraduate student in biological systems engineering, developed a deeper interest in pursuing graduate school, while Sasha Terry, an undergraduate student at SCC interested in pursuing a degree in fashion and textiles, discovered fungus-based materials. Deepashree Ravi, an undergraduate biomedical engineering student, used her skills and knowledge from the Diane Bryant Engineering Student Design Center to design an airlift bioreactor (they’ll bring a 3D-printed prototype to the presentation).
Nathan Lu, an undergraduate in biomedical engineering, and Stephanie Cole, a nursing student at SCC, round out the team attending Phase II.
McDonald says she is amazed at what the team was able to accomplish in such a short time span.
“I am proud and delighted that they were selected for Phase II of the competition and will get the unique opportunity to present their project to BioMADE and the Department of Defense,” she said.
McDonald also cites that a particular highlight for her was getting to know and work with Coppola, and she applauds BioMADE for establishing this program aimed at pairing students and faculty from research universities and community colleges.
“We definitely need more of these [types of] academic challenges,” said McDonald. “I hope we can continue our education and workforce development collaborations with SCC.”