Biomatrica case study

Biomimetic Case Study

This week it was difficult for me to choose which example of biomimicry I wanted to present here. Last week I attended the San Diego Zoo Biomimicry Conference. Two solid days hearing and talking about biomimicry. There were examples from educators, design firms like IDEO and corporations like Qualcom and Nike. Biomimicry applied to the tech industry, the sports industry, biotech and medical industries. Alas I had to choose one.

Biomatrica

Biomatrica is a biotech company that provides storage and stabilization solutions for biological materials. Instead of shipping on dry ice and storage in freezers, biomatrica's products allow room temperature storage. This allows for reduced energy use due to the elimination of refrigeration. Shipping becomes much cheaper and easier. For example Stanford University estimates that switching to room temperature stability would save them 16 million dollars over 10 years. The fact the no cold chain is required makes the chances of sample damage much less. This has applications not only in academic lab settings but also for forensics labs. In addition this type of product could greatly aid the distribution and access to medications in the third world where cold storage is often impossible.http://www.biomatrica.com/technology.php

This product was inspired by anydrobiosis, the ability of some organisms to survive being completely dried out for long periods of time. Tartigrades are an example of this type of organism. The creators of SampleMatrix the technology sold by Biomatrica also looked at the Resurrection Fern and Brine shrimp among others.

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Rolf Muller and Judy Muller-Cohn a husband and wife team of laboratory scientists needed their own solution for sample storage. They were inspired by sea monkeys at a toy store. Sea monkeys are actually dried up brine shrimp that come to life when water is added. They studied the mechanisms that make this possible in nature and built a company, Biomatrica, around their discovery.

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The amazing function behind this innovation is Anydrobiosis, or life without water. Tartigrades for example have been know to completely dry out for as many as 120 years and amazingly when water is added they come to life. Additional information can be found at Asknature.org as well as on Biometrica's website.