SOLUTION / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Ocean TuniCell produces unique, sustainable, high-quality biomaterials from the sea
- Published 13 December 2022; updated 21 September 2026; estimated reading time 3 minutes. Listed as available under Biopharma (Health and life science).
- Ocean TuniCell produces medical-grade marine nanocellulose biomaterial called TUNICELL from the tunicate Ciona intestinalis, a marine filter-feeding invertebrate. It is supplied as scaffolding for biomedical research and potential reconstruction of damaged organs and tissues.
- The company says tunicates are the only animal group able to synthesize cellulose. It describes tunicate cellulose fibres as longer and thicker than plant cellulose, comparable in scale to collagen scaffolding in the human body but with greater mechanical strength, and says the purified material is attractive for biomedical use.
- TUNICELL can provide structural support in 3D tissue constructs combined with cells and signaling molecules. Potential applications named include wound healing, cell therapy, cartilage engineering and soft-tissue reconstruction, with organ rebuilding as a future possibility. The page explicitly says the product is not yet implanted in people; customers use it for R&D and are advancing toward preclinical and clinical trials.
- Quality is managed through company control of the production chain: tunicates are farmed in low-trophic aquaculture on Norway’s western coast, harvested and processed, then refined into nanocellulose in clean-room facilities. The material can be physically and chemically adjusted to customer needs. The page says 10 products are on the market and more are in development, and that medical-grade production can be scaled industrially.
- Challenge context: the page cites 17 people per day in the US dying while awaiting organ transplants and says another person joins the waiting list every nine minutes; it describes donor-recipient incompatibility and organ condition as reasons some organs are discarded. Tissue engineering is presented as a future route to repair or replace tissues and organs.
- Market estimates cited by the page (all dated forecasts): medical scaffold technology at USD 2.1 billion by 2028 and hydrogels at USD 31.4 billion by 2027. Other target areas include wound care, 3D bioprinting, cell culture, tissue engineering and bioelectronics. Ocean TuniCell says it launched in 2018 and serves customers/collaborators in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, including clinics and medical research hospitals.
- Linked to SDG 3, Good health and well-being, through regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, and SDG 14, Life below water, through low-trophic aquaculture.
- Contact: Christofer Troedsson, CEO, christofer.troedsson@oceantunicell.com. Phone number is behind a collapsed reveal control. Company: OCEAN TUNICELL AS, Espehaugen 60, 5258 Blomsterdalen, Norway; oceantunicell.com.