We take creative approaches to tackling fundamental questions and engineering challenges, nurture an inclusive training environment for scientists of diverse backgrounds, and create tangible solutions for addressing sustainability challenges.
We believe in the power of collaboration and exchange between people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, within our lab and beyond. To this end, we work closely with chefs to bridge scientific research and gastronomy for food systems transformation – a bidirectional relationship that inspires our science and enables new culinary creativity.
OUR SPACE
Located in the Clark Center at Stanford University, our space has two sections: a state-of-the art biotechnology lab and a full-scale R&D kitchen. Our work moves seamlessly across these spaces. The biotechnology lab supports our synthetic biology and discovery work, allowing us to cultivate, analyze, and engineer diverse fungi. The kitchen space supports our food work through cross-disciplinary research, education, and outreach, and is a core building block of our DNA as a group.
We use our kitchen space to conduct research and experiments, such as prototyping, sensory trials, and food characterization; we teach classes to empower students with knowledge and skills they need to become future food innovators; we engage with internal and outside partners, including chefs, to create pathways that accelerate innovation between the university and the world; and we run outreach programs that use cooking to communicate STEM concepts and skills with youth. We are soon launching a chef-in-residence program to accelerate our interdisciplinary collaborations, so stay tuned!
