AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. and Polish researchers say microbial cellulose might soon be used in a wide variety of medical devices and consumer products.
University of Texas-Austin researcher R. Malcolm Brown Jr. and colleagues at the Technical University of Lodz, Poland, say biotechnology's next star product could be microbial cellulose, a form of cellulose produced naturally by bacteria. In fact, the material already has found some applications in medicine.
In their review of worldwide research on microbial cellulose, Brown and colleagues found the material is chemically identical to the more-familiar plant cellulose. But cellulose produced by the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum has a unique nanostructure of fibers that make it ideal as a dressing to speed wound healing and for a range of other biomedical applications.
Based on their review, the researcher believe microbial cellulose will be widely used in medical devices, as well as consumer products, once scientists develop a method to mass produce the material.
The review is detailed in the current issue of the journal Biomacromolecules.
