This project investigates whether viable plant stem cells can be isolated from fresh timber refuse and sawmill waste streams to support the production of wood-like materials. It addresses the tension between rising construction material demand and ecological pressure on forests by exploring a lower-value biomass source that is currently discarded. The central hypothesis is that viable cell culture can be derived from freshly harvested lumber waste.
If successful, this project could create a new pathway for recovering value from lumber waste streams by converting discarded woody biomass into living cellular material for future material development. For sawmill and forestry stakeholders, this could improve the revenue potential of waste products while reducing pressure to rely on cement, plastic, or additional forest harvesting. In the longer term, the work may support development of novel wood-like matrices and living building materials from renewable waste sources.
The project begins by using generative AI to identify promising culture media and metabolite combinations for southern Colorado pine and related genera. Baseline cambial samples will be collected from pre-harvest trees of different ages and species, dissected under stereo-microscopy, sanitized, and transferred to agar plates and shaker suspension cultures to optimize nutrient and hormone conditions using established plant cell culture methods. The second stage will sample sawmill waste-stream material from local logging operations, then test multiple extraction and culture treatments, including direct plating, vibratory agitation, sonication, and maceration followed by filtration, to identify the most viable approach for callus formation, cell expansion, and possible differentiation.