Can Bacteria Make Better Leather than Cows? Polybion Says So

You've heard of fruit leather, but what about making leather from fruit? Or more precisely, feeding fruit waste like mango pulp to bacteria which then convert those sugars into a leather-like material that can be useful for all types of purposes?

That's exactly what Polybion, a startup in Central Mexico, is doing. Co-founded in 2015 by two brothers with a passion for using biology to save humanity from ourselves—as CEO Axel Gómez-Ortigoza puts it—Polybion has pioneered methods of turning the fruit industry's trash into what they hope will be their treasure.

As you'll hear in this episode, Polybion has methods for treating fruit waste to make it economic as a feedstock in their fermentation system to grow cellulose into a leather-like material they call Celium. Already the company is partnered with fashion companies eager to put Celium into their menu of offerings.

To sustainably feed and clothe ourselves into the future, it's imperative that we no longer go big with animal agriculture, but instead go small with microbial agriculture. Will Polybion's cellulose leather be a part of the solution? Time will tell. But for now, enjoy hearing the wild ride this company's been on from conception to pivoting technologies to getting a product out onto the market.

Discussed in this episode

• You can see photos of Celium here.

• CNN on the partnership between Danish fashion brand Ganni and Polybion.

• Suzanne Lee was an inspiration for Polybion's founders.

• Ecovative also inspired them, and we did an episode with them too!

• Plastic-eating fungi offer hope

• Axel recommends reading Microcosmos and My Inventions. He also recommends watching the original Carl Sagan Cosmos TV series from the 1980s. (The 2014 remake with Neil deGrasse Tyson is also great.)

• Guillermo González Camarena was an engineer who served as an inspiration to Axel.

More about Axel Gómez-Ortigoza

Axel Gómez-Ortigoza was born with an innate fascination for the mysteries of life, the natural world, and the universe, which sparked his lifelong passion for life sciences and finding solutions to complex problems.

After completing high school, he decided to carry on the family tradition of engineering that had spanned three generations and pursued a career in bioengineering. With his expertise in Microbiology, Bioinformatics, Cell Culture, Murine Assays, Genetic Engineering, Synthetic Biology, and Origami, Axel became a skilled R&D scientist.

At the young age of 22, he and his brother Alexis co-founded Polybion, a New Generation Materials Company, which soon earned Axel a spot as one of MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35. Today, he serves as both CEO and CTO of his company, and his groundbreaking work has led to the development of the world's first Bacterial Cellulose Biomanufacturing Facility.

Axel's tireless efforts have paved the way for the rapid advancement of bioassembled products, increased sustainability, and a more efficient transition toward a circular economy. He is convinced that the intersection of biology and technology is the key to solving the global health crisis. He envisions a future in which humans and nature can coexist in harmony.