This is the last publication from Dr. Marcel Moura, PI at PoreLab/University of Oslo and his colleagues from the University of Minnesota in the US: Filamentous fungi control multiphase flow and fluid distribution in porous media | Nature Physics
The main author of this publication is Sang Hyun Lee, Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, USA.
The article was selected as cover by the Journal Nature Physics, Volume 21 Issue 11, November 2025.
Marcel wrote about this article: Good news! The work resulting from the collaboration started in 2022 with the folks from the University of Minnesota (Sang Lee and Peter Kang) got published in Nature Physics. This is a very interesting project in which fungi grown inside a porous medium is used to block the high permeability zones thus forcing the flow to low permeability areas which would otherwise be inaccessible. I think it has a good impact for soil remediation techniques in which the contaminants tend to stay trapped in these low permeability zones, typically hard to be reached by the injection of treatment chemicals which tends to flow through the high permeability zones.
Abstract: Filamentous fungi play crucial roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling, soil carbon sequestration, agricultural soil management, contaminant fate and transport, biofouling of engineered materials and human health. Although these processes typically involve multiple fluid phases in porous media, the mechanisms by which fungi regulate fluid flow remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict and harness fungus-mediated processes. The complexity and opacity of porous media further obscure our understanding of how fungi influence fluid flow and distribution. Here we explore the impact of filamentous fungi on multiphase flow and fluid redistribution using a dual-porosity microfluidic chip, featuring a flow channel embedded within tight porous media. Our pore-scale visualizations show that filamentous fungi can actively induce multiphase flow and mobilize trapped fluid phases in porous media through localized clogging and hyphal-induced pore invasion, enhancing the oil–water interfacial area and redistribution of fluid phases. This study reveals the mechanisms by which filamentous fungi modulate fluid flow and distribution, offering insights into harnessing fungal processes to enhance applications such as bioremediation and carbon sequestration.