Funded Researchers

Benedetto Marelli
- Associate Professor
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Benedetto Marelli is a Paul M. Cook Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. His research group works to develop materials-based innovations for precision agriculture, food security and food safety. The Marelli lab has developed new technologies to minimize food waste, enable agriculture in marginal lands, rapidly detect food contamination and precisely deliver payloads in plants. Benedetto has received several awards, including PECASE, NSF CAREER, ONR YIP and ONR DoRECA. Benedetto is the co-founder of Mori, a startup that uses silk as edible coating to extend the shelf-life of perishable food.
J-WAFS-funded projects
- Precise fish vaccine injection using silk-based biomaterials
- Printed silk-based colorimetric sensors for food spoilage prevention and supply chain authentication
Publications
News
- J-WAFS PI creates a color-changing wrap that indicates when food has spoiled
- J-WAFS PI discovers an alternative for microplastics in the agriculture industry
- Climate Grand Challenges project revolutionizing agriculture with low-emissions, resilient crops
- Climate Grand Challenges flagship projects include multiple J-WAFS PIs
- Multiple J-WAFS PIs chosen as MIT Climate Grand Challenges finalists
- J-WAFS PI Benedetto Marelli engineers seed coating to tackle water shortages
- J-WAFS PIs Benedetto Marelli and John Hart have teamed up to create and manufacture an innovative new food sensorĀ
- Novel drug patch for plants developed by J-WAFS PI Benedetto Marelli