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Reports/Tocco Report: Bacterial Cellulose
2025-2026
Updated 2 months ago
Bacteria

Tocco Report: Bacterial Cellulose
2025-2026

The Future of Programmable Materials

Bacterial cellulose is no longer a laboratory anomaly. Secreted by acetic acid bacteria as a nanocellulose network of exceptional purity, it combines high crystallinity with unusual lightness and strength, and can be grown from nothing more complex than sugars or food-industry sidestreams. Its qualities: breathable, durable, and endlessly fine in structure, explain why it has become one of the most closely watched programmable materials of the moment.

What matters now is not promise but proof. This report follows the material through five distinct chapters, from pure cultures supplying membranes and films, to leather-adjacent sheets, composites with new strength profiles, engineered strains shaped by synthetic biology, and speculative projects that treat cellulose as a living system. Each case study is selected for its recency, visibility, and seriousness, where work is tangible, testable, and already shaping discourse. This report by Tocco team maps where bacterial cellulose stands in 2025-2026: who is producing it, how it is being applied, and which directions deserve attention now.

Glues & Adhesives 2030 Edition Report Cover

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  1. Pure Cultures:
    Growing Films from Living Microbes
  2. Sheets & Surfaces
    Growing Leather Alternatives
  3. Blended Matter
    Hybrids & Composites
  4. Engineered Cellulose
    Synthetic Biology & Genetic Programming
  5. Living Futures
    Responsive, Self-Healing, Speculative
  6. Glossary
Black rubber material

Materials in focus

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1 - 5 of 17
Biodegradable
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Recycled
Discover the benefits and challenges of recycled materials, as well as insights into how recycling transforms waste into valuable resources.

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Bamboo
Introducing bamboo as an interesting alternative material. Learn about bamboo's incredible growth, and processing into textiles, paper, and construction materials.

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Mycelium
Get into the world of mycelium, and discover its applications and the potential it holds for revolutionizing packaging and product design.

Mycelium

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Silk
Discover the intricate world of silk, its rich history, production processes, and its ethical alternatives.

Silk

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What's inside?

JeNaCell (Evonik) | Germany

Hydrogel dressings grown by bacteria, JeNaCell produces medical sheets of pure bacterial cellulose through controlled fermentation. Marketed as epicite®, the sterile hydrogel contains >95% isotonic saline, offering high moisture donation, strong exudate absorption, and pain-free removal. Stable, biocompatible, and residue-free, it is applied to chronic and acute wounds, showing how microbial biopolymers enter clinical practice at scale.

JeNaCell (Evonik) | Germany Hydrogel dressings grown by bacteria, JeNaCell produces medical sheets of pure bacterial cellulose through controlled fermentation. Marketed as epicite®, the sterile hydrogel contains >95% isotonic saline, offering high moisture donation, strong exudate absorption, and pain-free removal. Stable, biocompatible, and residue-free, it is applied to chronic and acute wounds, showing how microbial biopolymers enter clinical practice at scale.
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