We want to make edible mushrooms bioluminesce through gene technology. A further goal would be to make them bioluminesce when high heavy metal levels are detected in soil.

We started the project when our project leader, Lorenzo, was reading a book about fungi (as one does) and read about the luciferin/luciferase mechanism in glowing fungi. Fascinated, he immediately texted his colleagues whether they would be interested in creating some edible bioluminescent fungi, to which they replied “hell yeah”.