No, Julian Assange is not involved. Not as far as we know, anyway.
WikiCell Designs, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, and Paris, France, said today it has closed $10 million in Series A funding led by Flagship Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. The idea behind the company is to produce edible forms of food and beverage packaging that can replace paper and plastic—think about how nature protects fruits like grapes, oranges, and coconuts.
WikiCell is led by co-founder and new CEO Robert Connelly, who recently left the helm of biotech firm Pulmatrix. The technology comes from a team led by Harvard professors David Edwards and Donald Ingber, industrial designer Francois Azambourg, and an international network of designers and scientists at ArtScience Labs.
No word yet on exactly how it works (or how mainstream it could become), but the idea of digestible wrappers and skins to replace millions of tons of waste is an appealing one. The company already has demonstrated edible packaging (which is delicious, it adds) for juice, yogurt, ice cream, fruit, cheese, soup, and other items. WikiCell expects to release its first commercial products next year.
Author: Gregory T. Huang
Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003.
Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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