.png)
Date: 2026-02-23
Always a thrill to see our community members step into the spotlight. Congratulations to Allegra Feingold, Head of Mycology, and the entire MycoFarming® team, on being named among the “FD Talents 2026.” A powerful recognition of the team’s work in turning purpose into real-world impact.
Mycofarming's founder Juan Cruz approached Allegra at the mushroom stand, while she was on duty at her side job on the Amsterdam Noordermarkt. He had an urgent question about mushrooms and fungi. Allegra, a graduate in Earth Sciences, was the match made in startup heaven.
She now works as the Head Mycologist, a researcher of fungi: “Fungi can break down substances from water or soil, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, pharmaceutical residues, oil, and heavy metals.”
And that’s not all. Fungi also produce biomass, which can be used as a fiber or soil improver. Together with Rijkswaterstaat, a pilot project is currently being conducted next to a busy road. Can the rubber from worn car tires be cleaned up by fungi growing in the adjacent ditch?
Working with a living organism is a challenge, says Allegra: “You want to expand, but also keep the fungi in balance.”
Allegra Feingold: "For me, this opportunity felt like a beautifull moment of recognition for my work at MycoFarming, being the mycologist and actually working with the mycelium in the growing container. It brought me in contact with others in the same field (biotech). Having our homebase at DLAB essentially made the first developments possible for MycoFarming."
Founder Juan Cruz Tubio started MycoFarming in 2023 and has been a member of the DLAB community ever since, growing his startup to 9 team members, winning a lot of awards and prize money and on a serious mission to solve the nitrogen crisis.
Juan Cruz: "This is one of my proudest moments. I founded MycoFarming so that mycologists around the world would be given the attention we need. Fungi play a key role in natural cycles, as the janitors of the wild. In our modern world, where we are creating so much trash, it is only natural that fungi hold the key to making our industries sustainable. But mycology has been long neglected by academia."
The highlight by the Financieele Dagblad was exactly the kind of movement Juan Cruz was trying to accelerate with MycoFarming: "It's a movement characterised by collaboration, scientific rigor and respect for nature and everything it provides. I am eternally grateful for DLAB’s role in helping us from the very beginning to translate science into real-world impact. It all started with a simple request: I want to solve the nitrogen crisis with the help of mushrooms”.
We’re proud to see MycoFarming, both the team and the fungi, growing on DLAB soil.
To read the original short story on how Allegra met MycoFarming's founder Juan Cruz, and about their pilot with Rijkswaterstaat, read the FD article here.
