Miguel Gama

Bacterial NanoCellulose: Last but not the least   University of Minho, Portugal

Biography

Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Biological Engineering, University of Minho. Visiting Professor at Shanghai and Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Research interests include the development and characterization of the biomaterials, the development of drug delivery systems for antimicrobial peptides and low molecular weight hydrophobic drugs, biocompatibility studies, biomass degradation and enzyme technologies.

In the past few years a main focus of research is related to the translation of Bacterial NanoCellulose to the bioeconomy. The spinoff Satisfibre has been created with the mission of developing a technology for the large scale production and IP on product formulations with potential application in the cosmetics, food, composites and pharmaceutical industries.

Abstract

Nanocellulose production is reaching the industrial scale, several factories operating nowadays at a scale >1ton/day. Bacterial Nanocellulose (BNC), long recognized a very promising nanocellulose, stays confined to a “traditional” food product available in Asian countries and few biomedical products. However, its potential in cosmetics, food and composites is indisputable and technically it may outperform cellulose nanocrystals or microfibrilar nanocellulose, given the much higher aspect ratio. In this lecture, the potential of BNC as a colloid stabilizer will be discussed.