The funguy kit (Mycelian Micro) — design a shape in software, run the laser printer you built, and watch Mucor fungus grow your exact pattern on an agar plate in just 1–2 days. The world's first bio STEAM kit where living science is the medium, built on peer-reviewed research.
Original design by FunguyLab — original hardware, software & light-guided fungal-printing method.
Made a piece with our light-printing tech? We'll exhibit it at the Cambridge Science Carnival — “Grow with the Glow.”
Submit your work →
Real images from the research — the fungus, the laser, the pattern. Everything in the kit comes from this work.
Built on peer-reviewed research from SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 — the kit turns a frontier of bio-art and mycology into a hands-on experience: design a shape in software, run a machine you built, and grow living fungus into that exact shape.
Four years from a question in the lab to a kit on your desk.
Can a neural network learn to grow a living organism into a designed shape? The project starts in the lab — laser, agar, fungus, and a new question.
"Exploring Fungal Morphology Simulation and Dynamic Light Containment from a Graphics Generation Perspective" — accepted and presented at SIGGRAPH Asia Art Papers.
The research becomes a product. A DIY laser printer, Mucor culture, agar medium, and complete control software — designed for the next generation of bio-artists and makers.
From peer-reviewed publication to artist conversations — the research that became Mycelian Micro has traveled.
Published at SIGGRAPH Asia Art Papers, Tokyo — one of the world's premier computer graphics venues. Research on fungal morphology simulation and dynamic light containment.
Read the science ↗
Presented inside MIT's Arts, Culture & Technology Cube. Gediminas Urbonas, ACT co-director and renowned artist, engaged directly in discussion.
Invited to present at BioFabricate — the world's leading bio-innovation summit. BioFabricate's Founder & CEO joined for a discussion on living materials and the future of bio-art.
See BioFabricate post ↗
A global art prize exploring climate change, biodiversity, and sustainability. Mycelian received the Jury Choice Award and was exhibited in Venice, Auckland, and Sharjah, UAE — reaching 40,000+ visitors.
See award results ↗From a feature in Hackaday to Reddit's maker and mycology communities — here's how the maker world responded to the project.
Hackaday — a leading maker & hardware-hacker publication — featured the Funguy project: using a laser to guide living Mucor fungus into designed patterns, driven by neural-network growth prediction.
Read the article ↗"I built a DIY fungal printer that uses light to grow living art"
"Using light to guide growth sounds like some sci-fi stuff."
"Brilliant, very cool! Will you post your project or general methodology anywhere? Might be cool to do a study on it as well to explore various applications."
"You could make woven Celtic-like patterns, spirals, mycelial circuit boards… if there's a way to actuate them and find analogs of basic electronics components."
Assemble a working low-power laser printer from its components. Understand motors, optics, and control electronics by putting them together with your own hands. Swap in a different wavelength laser module to repurpose it as a desktop laser cutter or engraver — the same hardware, new creative possibilities for maker projects.
Cultivate Mucor — a fast-growing, safe, edible fungus — on agar plates. Observe how its mycelial network spreads, branches, and responds to light as a living material. At the end of its lifecycle, the fungal artwork fully composts: no waste, no synthetic materials left behind — just soil.
Design any pattern in the control software. The system generates a laser path and sends it to your machine — fungus grows where light doesn't reach, completing your design.
The kit traces a complete creative loop — from a digital sketch to a machine you assembled to a petri dish of living art.
Assemble your low-power DIY light printer from the kit components — motors, frame, optics, controller board. No experience required; guided step by step.
Draw or import any shape in the control software, then preview how it will grow with the AI simulator. The software turns your design into a light path and sends the job to your machine.
Inoculate an agar plate with Mucor and run the print. The beam traces your design; the fungus avoids the light and fills the unlit areas — completing your pattern over 1–2 days.
Everything you need for the full design–build–grow loop. No extra tools required.
Low-power laser module, frame, stepper motors, controller board, and all fasteners — a full working machine you assemble from scratch.
Food-safe, fast-growing edible fungus spores. White branching growth visible within 24–48 hours.
Pre-measured nutrient agar powder. Mix, pour, and set — the canvas your fungus grows on.
Draw freehand, import SVG/images, or choose from templates. Any shape becomes a printable fungal pattern.
Automatically converts your design into precise G-code laser instructions for the printer.
Preview how Mucor will fill in your pattern before committing to a print — based on the neural cellular automaton from our research.
A hands-on DIY biology project that's genuinely cutting-edge: build a laser machine, grow bio-art, and have research-backed results to present — perfect for science fair, homeschool, or after-school clubs.
An interdisciplinary unit covering engineering, biology, and computational design — with a concrete, shareable outcome every student makes.
Undergrads, biohackers, and makers exploring living computation, bio-art, and the frontier of organism-as-medium.
Order a funguy kit (Mycelian Micro) at early-bird pricing. Kits ship in 4–7 business days. Early-bird price locks until August 20, 2026.
Order your funguy kit →
SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 · 
reEarth 2025
1–2 day grow cycle
18–26 °C · any warm room
Edible fungus · from fermented food
Class 1 laser product · goggles included · ages 13+ →
