How a Microbe From Yellowstone's Hot Springs Could Help Feed the World

A Chicago startup has turned a fungus found by NASA into a protein-packed food

Claire Turrell
Freelance writer

March 1, 2024



Minerals and algae form patterns in the scalding hot water at Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park's Midway Geyser Basin. Yellowstone National Park has more than 10,000 thermal features, making it the largest concentration of active geysers in the world. George Rose/Getty Images
In 2009, NASA researcher Mark Kozubal stooped down by the side of a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. On the harsh acidic water, he could see that a microbe was thriving: A mat of algae had formed on the surface. Carefully taking a spatula, he scooped up a fingernail-sized piece of the algal mat and placed it into a sterile tube.

Kozubal was leading a team of scientists who had been tasked with finding life in this extreme environment filled with steam vents and hot springs. It was research that could prove invaluable for space missions to the moons of Saturn or to Mars. But little did Kozubal know, the microbe he was carrying would be the genesis of one of the world’s most innovative food companies on Earth.

This wasn’t the first time a miracle microbe had been found at Yellowstone. In 1966, scientists found the heat-loving bug Thermus aquaticus that became the foundation of PCR tests. An enzyme from the robust bug can handle the thermal cycles of heating and cooling used in the process of copying DNA.

Kozubal finished his doctorate at Montana State University in 2010, but he didn’t forget about the microbe. He continued to study it. At first, he thought this extremophile could become the source of a new biodiesel, but as gas was so cheap in the United States at that time, it would have been hard to be competitive. The microbe came from the fungus family, so Thomas Jonas, a former president of a packaging company with an interest in science, who Kozubal met through friends, suggested they turn their focus to food.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-a-microbe-from-yellowstones-hot-springs-could-help-feed-the-world-180983872/