https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/willka-fidel-vargas-pena/index.htmlAbout me Hi! I’m Willka FIdel Vargas Peña. I’m a third year Biotechnology Engineering Student at Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) in Cochabamba-Bolivia. I’m passionate about Synthetic Biology, Bioprocess Engineering and Biinformatics c:Hugoenhttps://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/willka-fidel-vargas-pena/week-01-hw-project-ideas/index.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/willka-fidel-vargas-pena/week-01-hw-project-ideas/index.htmlthis page includes Class Assigment of week 1 Biomanufacturing Proposal: Photosynthetic Living Building Materials (LBMs) 1. What you would like to biomanufacture and why? Target Product: Photosynthetic Living Building Materials (LBMs). These are eco-friendly structural bricks composed of an inert matrix (neutralized mining tailings or fine quartz sand) and a biodegradable hydrogel (sodium alginate or gelatin), structurally consolidated through cyanobacteria-induced photosynthetic biomineralization of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Target Audience/beneficiaries Mining communities and cooperatives in remote regions (e.g., the Bolivian Altiplano and Valleys). Isolated locations facing high transport costs for traditional materials and managing tons of physical waste (tailings) ready to be upcycled. Urban green construction industry. Developers seeking low-carbon alternatives to conventional Portland cement to earn sustainability certifications. Motivation Mining operations produce massive amounts of pulverized tailing waste. Instead of purchasing and transporting clean commercial sand, this project utilizes neutralized mining tailings as the primary physical aggregate, trapping fine fugitive dust within a solid biocement matrix and turning an environmental liability into a local raw material (Zhu et al., 2022). In addition, in isolated mining camps and settlements, freight costs for standard cement are disproportionately high. Biomanufacturing allows transporting only the biological inoculum and polymers (less than 5% of total mass), leveraging local tailings waste and abundant solar radiation in situ to produce community infrastructure (retaining walls, shelter structures, and greenhouses) (Heveran et al., 2020).https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/willka-fidel-vargas-pena/final-project/index.htmlMon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://pages.htgaa.org/2026b/willka-fidel-vargas-pena/final-project/index.html