Elise Elsacker | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, BE

Currently, I’m a postdoctoral research fellow and a 10% research assistant professor the Department of Bio-engineering Sciences, Microbiology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and funded by the by the Research Foundation Flanders - FWO. My research project pioneers the development of materials in which the fungal organism stays alive. I follow an interdisciplinary approach to first investigate the requirements to sustain the fungal viability during its lifespan, then unravel the correlation between physical and mechanical properties of the material and gene expression profiles of the organism. My focus is to study the regeneration behaviour of the fungus leading to the self-healing of the material upon damage. All these new insights inform designs of novel reactive self-sustaining fabrics. I’m also working on the FUNGATERIA project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon-EIC-2021-Pathfinder Challenges.

I have been a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2021-2022) at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Newcastle University (United Kingdom) working on Living Mycelium Materials in the research group “Living Construction”, led by Prof. Martyn Dade-Roberson and Meng Zhang. My work was pioneering the development of materials in which fungal organisms maintain viability during their lifespan. My focus was to study the fungus's regeneration behaviour leading to the material's self-healing upon damage. I was also involved in the development and fabrication of the Bioknit pavilion. A research that focuses on the biocompatibility of knitted fabrics as a scaffold for growth, highlighting the potential to create complex forms using textile fibres.

My PhD in Engineering (2017-2021) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) intertwined with various fields such as biology, mycology, materials sciences and design. A particular achievement of my dissertation, entitled Mycelium Matters, is that it is one of the first to characterise all principal factors affecting the biological and material properties of mycelium composites. I also broadened the potential of biological architectural applications with novel robotic tools such as 3D-printing and robotic wire-cutting. With my doctoral project I initiated interdepartmental collaborations between Architectural Engineering, Microbiology and Physical Chemistry, which did not previously exist at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Starting from an architectural perspective I gradually developed a broader vision of the research with mycelium materials in the other fields.

My fascination for digital materiality guided me to CITA, Copenhagen (nov. 2019 - march 2020) that I got to know during the Circular Construction Challenge one year earlier. My research stay revolved around the question how living matter can be designed by altering its spatial and environmental configurations and thereby influencing specific characteristics and material behaviour of the elements. 

I co-founded the company Glimps.bio in 2018, a Belgian innovation agency in bio, creativity and collaboration, which focusses on creating value from waste by finding circular and bio-design solutions for biotech and waste companies. I seated in the Board of Directors until 2023.

I gained interdisciplinary scientific insights by working with bioengineers, materials scientists, mushroom producers, and designers. Throughout this journey, a network of like-minded people, experts and companies emerged.

Driven by a broader sense of societal responsibility, I’m dedicated to build bridges to address the future of materials. This interest initially flowed out of experiments I conducted at the open biolab ReaGent (Gent, Belgium) during my free time while working as an architect (2014-2016). Together, we grew a large local and online community (initiated biofabforum.org), presented at conferences, and produced free educational content (manuals, workshops, courses) in collaboration with Ekoli.

I obtained a Master of Science in Architecture in 2012 from KULeuven - campus Sint-Lucas Brussel. I did my internship during 6 months at L.A.V.A in Berlin. Back in Belgium, I have been working for one of Belgium's renowned engineering offices for more than two years, Ney & Partners. I was project architect on several bridge projects, mainly 6 footbridges in Leiden, NL.