Penicillium has been named Microbe of the Year 2026, recognising its role in producing antibiotics that have saved millions of lives since 1928. Industrial strains now produce hundreds of thousands of times more penicillin than the original discovery, with global production reaching 50,000 tonnes annually

This is the fourth article in a six-part series exploring critical themes shaping the future of functional mushrooms, in partnership with Finnish biotech company KÄÄPÄ Biotech . For centuries, chaga has been one of nature’s most powerful secrets. In the Nordics, in the cold, on slow-growing birch forests, this charcoal-black conk develops over many years. Throughout that time it accumulates the bioactive compounds that have made it an essential part of traditional medicine ac

China's National Health Commission has granted the country's first regulatory approval for mycoprotein, establishing detailed national specifications that provide clarity for future applications

A mushroom sold in Asian markets causes remarkably consistent hallucinations of miniature people in 96% of affected individuals, a phenomenon documented independently across China, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines

MIT chemists have synthesized verticillin A for the first time since its discovery in 1970, overcoming molecular complexity that stymied researchers for decades