SynSCOBY

Throughout my SCOBY research I've end up in some in some random places of the internet. Forums like biohack.me , Reddit's kombucha club, and a Youtube video of a fifth grader observing yeast through a microscope. Perhaps the "key words" on my Google search was not clear enough or the world needs better SEO for biomaterials searches.

Last Spring I read about SYNSCOBY and never in a million years thought I would have access to it. After some deliberations I decided to reach out to the lab and see if I could get a sample. Tzu-Chieh Tang (Zijay) Responded to my email as he is One of the author's in the Synscoby paper.

At the moment I'm doing a work/study at Genspace.  With the guidance of Beth and Jehovani I was able to get some petri dishes and move forward with the pickup of the samples.

October 12

The day started like a mission with an early flight 6:45am and an empty Specimen Transport Cooler.

The cooler got stuck on the security belt. When the TSA called me I was worried he was going to check my handbag. I had 4 petri dishes wrapped in plastic with gel media to transport the yeast from Boston to NY. Thankfully he just handed me the box and let me go.

 Zijay and I met a the Wyss Insititute where he is currently a research fellow. Arriving to the lab felt a little intimidating and exciting I couldn't believe I was there. 

Zijay helped me put some dry ice and sealed the box. With the samples in the cooler I run to the train station to take the train back to NY. The yeast needs to be at -80 °C.

At the moment I'm researching what are the possibilities, what would be a way to to start the conversation about GMO Scoby. 

 https://lemelson.mit.edu/synscoby-tzu-chieh-tang

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012804659300004X

Zjay, Beth, Jehovani, THANK YOU!

SYNSCOBY PAPER INFO BELOW :

Living materials with programmable functionalities grown from engineered microbial co-cultures

DOI:10.1101/2019.12.20.882472

Authors: Charlie Gilbert, Tzu-Chieh Tang, Wolfgang Ott , Brandon A Dorr, William M Shaw, George L Sun, Timothy K Lu, Tom Ellis

Biological systems assemble tissues and structures with advanced properties in ways that cannot be achieved by man-made materials. Living materials self-assemble under mild conditions, are autonomously patterned, can self-repair and sense and respond to their environment. Inspired by this, the field of engineered living materials (ELMs) aims to use genetically-engineered organisms to generate novel materials. Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biological material with impressive physical properties and low cost of production that is an attractive substrate for ELMs. Inspired by how plants build materials from tissues with specialist cells we here developed a system for making novel BC-based ELMs by addition of engineered yeast programmed to add functional traits to a cellulose matrix. This is achieved via a synthetic 'symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast' (Syn-SCOBY) approach that uses a stable co-culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae with BC-producing Komagataeibacter rhaeticus bacetria. Our Syn-SCOBY approach allows inoculation of engineered cells into simple growth media, and under mild conditions materials self-assemble with genetically-programmable functional properties in days. We show that co-cultured yeast can be engineered to secrete enzymes into BC, generating autonomously grown catalytic materials and enabling DNA-encoded modification of BC bulk material properties. We further developed a method for incorporating S. cerevisiae within the growing cellulose matrix, creating living materials that can sense chemical and optical inputs. This enabled growth of living sensor materials that can detect and respond to environmental pollutants, as well as living films that grow images based on projected patterns. This novel and robust Syn-SCOBY system empowers the sustainable production of BC-based ELMs.