A discovery platform to optimize the production of nutrient rich food via solid state fermentation of feedstocks relevant to spaceflight.

To address the nutritional requirements of astronauts, Mycsology Foods aims to develop an AI-driven discovery and optimization platform aimed at advancing solid state fermentation (SSF) technology to transform feedstocks relevant to space environments into nutrient rich food ingredients using bacterial and fungal biofilms. Mycsology will benchmark and de-risk our platform through this Phase I STTR project, with an initial focus on the production of vitamin B9/folate by various yeasts, including GRAS, halo- and thermo- tolerant yeasts such as K. marxianus and I. orientalis. SSF is inherently suitable for space flight applications and offers significant advantages over precision fermentation which involves high water and energy consumption and generates multiple waste. Through this Phase I project, Mycsology will generate structured data on biofilm development, stability, and inhibitor tolerance, and overall productivity. The SSF platform will serve as a high-throughput testbed for profiling bacterial and fungal communities that form productive biofilms, with an initial proof-of-concept optimization of protein and folate production. The insights gained will inform the development of robust biofilm-based fermentation systems capable of thriving under resource-limited conditions, such as those encountered during space missions. For terrestrial use, Mycsology has identified solid state fermentation (SSF) as a promising avenue to improve the nutritional value of snack foods and serve as a source of sustainably sourced, cost-effective ingredients to tackle malnutrition. Our beachhead market are food brands and manufacturers within the packaged convenience foods sector. The global protein ingredients market is valued at USD 77.69 billion in 2022 with 0.707 million metric tons of soy protein isolate and concentrate produced in 2021. We expect to capture a significant portion of this market share.