• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Sunday, February 5, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Mushroom cultivation technology company earns People’s Choice award at innovation challenge

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
January 13, 2023
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

A business founded by researchers at Kennesaw State University to improve the process of growing specialty mushrooms won the People’s Choice Award and finished among four finalists at the Ag Innovation Challenge sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

Chris Cornelison

Credit: Jason Getz

A business founded by researchers at Kennesaw State University to improve the process of growing specialty mushrooms won the People’s Choice Award and finished among four finalists at the Ag Innovation Challenge sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

MycoLogic, co-founded by assistant professor of microbiology Chris Cornelison and postdoctoral researcher Kyle Gabriel, received the most votes from an online poll among 10 agriculture-based startups to earn the award. The companies were competing for more than $165,000 in prize money at the AFBF event in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“To win the People’s Choice Award, to have your people show up—university, sponsors, friends, family—that’s an amazing level of validation,” Cornelison said. “The ecosystem at KSU and in Georgia have propped us up to the point where we have this amazing opportunity to make the case for large-scale mushroom cultivation.”

A company dedicated to automated mushroom production technology, MycoLogic rose from the BioInnovation Lab in KSU’s College of Science and Mathematics. Specifically, MycoLogic allows farmers to grow a higher quantity and better quality of specialty mushroom in 40-foot shipping containers equipped to create conditions optimized for growth.

MycoLogic won $10,000 for advancing to the semifinals of the Ag Innovation Challenge, $5,000 for making the final and $5,000 for the People’s Choice Award. Through the competition, Cornelison and Gabriel also participated in pitch training and mentorship with scholars from Cornell University’s College of Business, as well as network with representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business Investment Companies.

MycoLogic had support from the Georgia Research Alliance’s Greater Yield Initiative, which backs university start-up companies focused on agricultural and food technology. In addition, MycoLogic benefited from financial and resource support from the Georgia Department of Agriculture and Georgia Centers for Innovation. 

The American Farm Bureau Federation has held the Ag Innovation Challenge for nine years, championing entrepreneurs and organizations seeking to address challenges facing farmers, such as access to labor and optimizing yield. From hundreds of entries, AFBF whittled the field to 10 semifinalists, who pitched their visions to a panel of experts on Jan. 6. The competition went to a web vote on Jan. 7 before four finalists made another pitch the next day.

Cornelison said he will put the prize money won at the Ag Innovation Challenge toward marketing efforts for MycoLogic as well as final design elements for MycoLogic’s first product offering. He said MycoLogic has a 22-customer waitlist after delivering the first unit last fall.

“For Kyle and me, it’s a new world,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have great mentorship and funding from the GRA, GDA, and Centers for Innovation as well as the support of our University, so we’re ready for the rounds of fundraising and networking that come this year. It’s hard not to have an advantage with all these supports aligned for us.”

Cornelison also thanked MycoLogic staff Will Beeson and Luc Lalire, who joined the company in recent months. Beeson earned his Master of Science in Integrated Biology from KSU in December, and Lalire came on board after earning his Master of Professional Studies degree in Controlled Environment Agriculture from Cornell University last August.



Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

World Cancer Day

Health Equity Report Card pilot project to help close the care gap highlighted on World Cancer Day

February 4, 2023
AC hum noise-based detection using HumTouch.

Tech that turns household surfaces into touch sensors is a touch closer to application

February 4, 2023

Preference for naturally talented over hard workers emerges in childhood, HKUST researchers find

February 4, 2023

Black South Africans report higher life satisfaction and are at less risk for depression post-migration, MU study finds

February 3, 2023

POPULAR NEWS

  • Jean du Terrail, Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Owkin

    Nature Medicine publishes breakthrough Owkin research on the first ever use of federated learning to train deep learning models on multiple hospitals’ histopathology data

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • First made-in-Singapore antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved to enter clinical trials

    58 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 15
  • Metal-free batteries raise hope for more sustainable and economical grids

    41 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • One-pot reaction creates versatile building block for bioactive molecules

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Health Equity Report Card pilot project to help close the care gap highlighted on World Cancer Day

Tech that turns household surfaces into touch sensors is a touch closer to application

Preference for naturally talented over hard workers emerges in childhood, HKUST researchers find

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 42 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In