Project description
Move over organoids, make room for ‘FUROID’ and ‘HAIROID’ technology
Markets and demanding consumers are turning towards more sustainable and arguably more ethical sources of numerous products to reduce their reliance on animals. Among the many areas demanding a change are animal furs for clothing and décor, animal sources for hair replacement therapies, and wool from sheep, used widely in both clothing and rugs. The EIC-funded FUROID project will develop and produce engineered living fur, hair follicles and wool with improved properties harnessing nanostructured scaffolds, hair/wool/fur organoids and automated biofabrication technologies. The project will support a growing portfolio of engineered living materials with continuous, scalable and generalisable technology for forming textured materials from mammalian cells in a roll-to-roll process.
Objective
The mission of FUROID is to enable animal-free production of hair (humans), fur (endangered animals) or wool (sheep). The key innovation is the development of continuous and scalable technology, enabling the end of using living animals as a source of fur and wool and dominating the market by 2030. Specifically, we will focus on the development of engineered living fur (ELF), The mission of FUROID is to enable animal-free production of hair (humans), fur (endangered animals) or wool (sheep). The key innovation is the development of continuous and scalable technology, enabling the end of using living animals as a source of fur and wool and dominating the market by 2030. The fundamental innovation will be reached by using a combination of nanostructured scaffolds (RESPILON), hair/wool/fur organoids (GENEUS), and automated biofabrication technologies (BIOFABICS).
The ambition of the project is to make significant steps to development of HLM products will deliver set of unprecedent properties:
• Animal free-production of fur (ELF) and wool (ELW) without environmental, biodiversity and ethical concerns.
• Gene-encoded traceability system endangered species unnoticed, uncontrolled and unpunished endangered species poaching.
• Novel vacuum-assisted 3D printing technology overcoming speed of SoA 3D bioprinters
• Continuous manufacturing using an automated production system
• DBTL platform for rational design and product optimization.
• Living human hair follicles (ELH) for transplantation and treatment alopecia as medical and psychological problem.
• Fur and wool textiles for apparel industry in rolls without size limitation delivering unprecedent properties.
• Improved properties of engineered fur/wool textiles due to nanofiber membranes with regulated water permeability.
The project will strengthen the portfolio of ELMs by developing scalable and generalizable technology for forming textured materials in roll-to-roll process from mammalian cells.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinator
4200-135 Porto
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.