Shellfish

Congratulations!

Today we explored the world of biodesign and the relatively new biodesign challenge created to stimulate the next generation of people moving into biotechnology.

Biodesign involves using living components, such as algae, fungi, or bacteria, as an aspect of the design itself.The goal of this is to increase the functionality of the finished or product or design as a result of the living components.

In 2020, Emily Marquette, Wei Huang, and Marziehsadat Banadaki proposed a system that would use the invasive species to the Great Lakes ecosystem of Zebra and Quagga mussels to create soda lime glass. This project provides two faucets of change: removing the invasive species to prevent further damage to the Great Lakes ecosystem as current methods are proving relatively ineffective, and a more eco-friendly way to harvest the calcium carbonate required for glass production.

This is possible because the shells of both the zebra and quagga mussel shells contain around 95% calcium carbonate and contains traces of other minerals and metals which could be utilized to make natural colours in glass.

To check out more of this amazing project, check out their project website. https://www.ccscmdmateriallab.com/projects/zebraglass

We also recommend exploring the other amazing projects for the Biodesign Challenge throughout the years if you have not yet. You'll be sure to be inspired!