About Cellsense's Sustainable Beads

Traditionally, embellishments are made from petroleum plastics and synthetic resins and then assembled by hand into garments. Alarmingly, almost 70% of all clothes produced globally are made from plastic. Embellished items are typically worn only five times on average and can take over 200 years to decompose in landfills. Cellsense chose to focus on embellishments because there are no scalable, sustainable options available on the market today, despite high demand.

Cellsense’s innovation is centered around using abundantly available renewable raw materials such as algae and cellulose to create scalable and sustainable bio-embellishments. After conducting over 130 tests, Cellsense developed a proprietary method of transforming algae and cellulose into transparent durable bio-embellishments with a combination of water resistance, compostability, and appropriate jade like touch-feel. These bio-embellishments have manifest environmental benefits over conventional options. Instead of being a major contributor of microplastics, their embellishment naturally decomposes. Rather than requiring fossil fuels to produce, they actually represent sequestered carbon during their lifespan.

One critical issue with traditional embellishments is the use of toxic dyes, metallic coatings, and chemicals for color. Cellsense addresses this by engineering bacteria to produce vivid colors as well as unique properties such as bioluminescence for added aesthetic value.

Cellsense has launched 3 successful pilots and received requests from over 20 brands to purchase their material; this is a testament to unsatisfied market demand and the desirable quality of their product.

Cellsense has received numerous accolades and awards, including the Swarovski Foundation's "Creatives For Our Future" grant, New Labs Founder Fellowship, Microsoft and Greentown Lab’s' ACCEL' Program. Cellsense has been showcased in prominent publications such as Vogue, L'officiel Brazil, CFDA, Dezeen, New York Design Week, and WGSN's "The Revolutionary Structures" article.