Mushroom threads as a leather substitute

More than half of all their products, namely 60%, are to be sustainable in 2021, promises German sporting goods manufacturer Adidas. This will be achieved by using recycled polyester - e.g., from plastic waste collected from beaches - and reused cotton as well as by delisting animal furs. The brand also already has vegan shoes in its range. A real innovation, however, is what the group will exclusively launch with three other fashion companies worldwide this year: Shoes made of a mushroom mesh instead of leather.

Toward better hybrid varieties

Modern high-yielding varieties of grain and other food crops are true miracles of productivity. Through breeding, they have been optimized to deliver maximum yields under typical growing conditions. But the most widely used method of hybrid breeding has also led to a depletion of the genetic variability of these varieties. As a result, today's hybrid varieties are often poorly able to adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as those already occurring due to climate change.

More variety for rapeseed fields

In many ways, rapeseed is a very special crop. For one thing, it is still relatively young - oilseed rape originated only about 1,000 years ago by a random cross between turnip (Chinese cabbage) and cabbage. On the other hand, with its 38 chromosomes Brassica napus has a very large and complex genome, with little of it known until a few years ago. Now, the yellow-flowering oilseed is used in many industrial areas, but there is a risk that today's rape varieties will soon no longer meet the harvest and environmental requirements.

Calculating the best conditions for cell factories

In biotechnology, many substances are extracted from microorganisms that function as living cell factories. In order to cultivate such organisms as efficiently as possible, especially on an industrial scale, oftentimes numerous and tedious tests are necessary. As part of a collaborative research project, Ralf Pörtner at the Hamburg University of Technology together with colleagues from industry and research has developed a digital tool for the optimization of biotechnological processes. 

Milk money - what is it worth?

Milk and dairy products such as cheese or yoghurt are some of the food-favorites in Germany and their sales have been steadily increasing for years. Especially so-called functional dairy products such as digestive yoghurt drinks or cholesterol-lowering spreads have conquered the market in recent years. But what do these products really contain, what exactly are the health-promoting components of milk and how can they be used specifically? And last but not least: how and why does the consumer decide to buy a product?

Chemical feedstock from exhaust gases

They live in hot springs and rank among the oldest forms of life on the planet: Archaea are microorganisms with sometimes remarkable metabolic pathways. This also includes the ability to use carbon dioxide from the air and to incorporate it into chemical compounds. If it were possible to transfer these abilities to bacteria that are easy to use biotechnologically, it would not only be possible to use the greenhouse gas for a meaningful purpose, but also to replace crude oil as a raw material.

Better sausage skins with enzymes

The standard process for producing collagen films has been established for 125 years. Now, a consortium of four partners has been looking for ways to to this a more sustainable and homogeneous way in the project "BioPro: Biotechnological process development for novel collagen-based membranes". The Weinheim-based company NATURIN Viscofan GmbH tested the practical suitability of one of its products: a nature-identical casing for sausages.