The current R&D&I trends in material science are shaped in close relation to sustainability aspects, where a pre-defined life cycle, cost-effectiveness, and background knowledge of their impact on humans and the environment are becoming increasingly relevant. This certainly holds for the large group of nature-derived biopolymers.
Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a well-known member of the nano-biopolymers family; it is an extracellular nanofibrillar product of acetic acid bacterial strains, offering a unique pool of features beyond ultra-high purity, hydrophilicity, mechanical strength, and biocompatibility. For use in more demanding environments, it can be efficiently manipulated in terms of composition (ex-situ, in-situ modification) or even shape by the variation of the production process. By collecting all modifications and production pathways, we can end up with a robust platform for processing specialized BC-based products. Indeed, by including polymers, particles or exclusively functional groups, BC can yield complex, tailor-made, multifunctional (nano)compounds with attributes far beyond the intrinsic properties of BC (e.g. bioactivity, pH-, thermal- and electro-responsiveness, electric- and ion-conductivity…). The latter paved the way for BC adaptation towards high-value applications, such as biomedical, cosmetics, food-nutrition, packaging, and even fuel cell.
In this context, this collection aims to explore new advances and challenges in BC research, focusing on the following topics:
- Theoretical and experimental findings related to BC processing;
- Modification, mixing, shaping and compounding with non-cellulosic components;
- Safety, toxicity and degradability aspects and
- Application niche of BC and BC nanocomposites (including, but not limited to, medicine, pharmacy, food and food packaging).
In the frame of collection, we invite the submission of original research and review articles, mini-reviews and prospective studies referring to the topics above.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Gorgieva is a material scientist at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, and an active member of Textile Chemistry and Advanced textile materials program group. Since Ph.D. competition in 2014 with the topic of biopolymer µ-structuring for cell-scaffold application, she leads the post-doctoral project for BC composites development, the national project for grape pomace uses in BC production, the lead agency project in biopolymer membrane development for alkaline fuel cells, bilateral projects with Austria, Croatia and Monte Negro, and currently lead the UM research activities in frame of Horizon EU project NABIHEAL and COST action WIRE. Gorgieva is the Slovenian representative at the Young Scientific Forum, the body of European Society for Biomaterials, the Cell and Tissue Engineering Society of Slovenia, and the EPNOE network. She received the European Doctoral Award Julia Polak (2018), the Researcher Award at UM (2020), Young Researcher Award at FS-UM (2018). Last year (2022) she was recognized among world's top 2% of scientists at the Stanford University list. She serves as a Ph.D. and master students’ mentor, lecturer on FS-UM Doctoral School, and co-authors > 50 article publications, as well as conference abstracts, patents, and patent applications, book chapters, visiting lectures, and holds active review- and editor roles in several Journals.
