IPBio is looking for a long-term volunteer who can focus on searching for new species of bioluminescent mushrooms, photographing them, and finding conditions that allow their cultivation in a laboratory. The position entails active searching during both day and night; photographing mushrooms in the forest and at the research center; filming the development process; and testing various substrate compositions, temperatures, and other factors conducive to mushroom development in the lab.

Bioluminescent mushrooms are only abundant during summer, when humid conditions are favorable to their development. IPBio wishes to develop a protocol that allows us to grow them in the lab under controlled conditions so they are readily available all year long. This would allow researchers to study them over longer periods; students on school trips to visualize the mushrooms during their winter trips (when they do not grow naturally); and potentially impact tourism in Iporanga through initiatives such as the development of a “Museum of Bioluminescence”.

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