Protocol for manufacturing photosynthetic cyanobacterial cell-based living building materials

Cement-free and photosynthetic cyanobacterial cell-based living building materials (LBMs) can be manufactured using microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) technology. Here, we present a protocol for cultivating Leptolyngbya boryana GGD and manufacturing LBMs using a sand-gelatin solution. We describe steps for fabricating acrylic molds and mixing abiotic substances with cyanobacterial cells for constructing LBMs. We then detail the procedures for analyzing the compressive strengths of our LBMs with or without the cyanobacterial cells using a universal testing machine (UTM). For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Son et al.¹