Five Unforgettable Projects from the BioDesign Challenge

The BioDesign Challenge has come and gone for another year, and we are left to consider what it tells us about the intersection of biotechnology, design, and story. A more in-depth profile of the event, the winning entry and the  context which makes BDC important, is here.

Yet, a review of the event would not be complete without mention of five projects which resonate in one’s imagination are:

KELSERRA, an algae-inspired bioadhesive aimed at the surgery market, which needs strong and biocompatible adhesives, and may well have found one in the high-tensile strength formulation which a team from McGill University developed. 

HEARTH, a team from the University if Istmo, developed a pesticide which replaces the deadly phostoxin for corn crop protection in Latin America, branded as KEN BEH and featuring a formulation based on argemone mexicali and propolis. 

AWAYSTE, developed by a team from Parsons School of Design, which addresses the hidden world of avoided emissions with a database of providers, technologies and emissions avoided as, for example, an alternative to products that rely on  easily-measured recycling efforts to make them circular, and aims to be the reference point for waste prevention in the biomaterial sector. 

FROM THE ASHES, by a team from Auburn University, tackles the challenge of building consensus and understanding around controlled burns of biomass by using ash from controlled burns (along with linseed oil) to make inks that ca n be used with visiting and local groups to make woodblock prints that bring the ordinary citizen closer to the story of controlling emissions and the dangers of wildfires via preventive controlled burns. 

Perhaps the most promising in the world of communicating the promise and function of biomaterials was an under-developed but promising project from New Design High School, titled SOUNDPROOF TAPESTRY which utilized waste fabric and cork from everyday commerce to create bio-based, high-impact soundproofing materials — it seems so well designed as a service which can be provided to New York City restaurants that struggle with noise pollution and have ample supplies of older table cloth and used cork from wine sales, and the resulting bioremediation of noise might well be seen, owing to the transient nature of restaurant patrons, by a high number of people relative to the actual waste material used.