Innovative Vegan Mucus Alternatives by Gel Matter

Gel Matter offers sustainable, synthetic alternatives to natural mucus, avoiding the environmental and ethical issues of harvesting mucus from animals. The team’s lab-made mucus mimics the functional properties of natural mucus, while remaining vegan, parasite-free, shelf-stable, and significantly cheaper to produce.

The team’s scalable mucus-production process relies on the science of polymers (long, repeating chains of molecules). The process breaks down into modular steps, allowing them to modify specific ingredients and features, such as the length and structure of polymer chains or the types of sugars and proteins involved. This allows them to “custom-build” mucus with different properties, such as being extra slippery, sticky, protective, or able to hold and release substances. These customizable materials can serve a range of functions in industries such as cosmetics, medicine, or engineering. Gel Matter’s novel process and technologies provide a versatile and customizable alternative to animal-derived mucus that can be integrated into existing manufacturing processes and industrial formulas.

Gel Matter Founder and CEO, Ilse Nava-Medina.

The Human Factor Inspired by the many functions of mucus in nature, a multidisciplinary team at City University of New York began a project where they collected over 40 types of mucus from 30 animal species to develop soft materials and hydrogels for humid conditions. Focusing on snail mucus, researchers identified chemical variations linked to adhesion, protection, and lubrication, leading to the creation of mucus prototypes that replicate these functionalities. During her PhD, Ilse Nava-Medina worked with natural-sourced proteins, such as gelatin, to create matrices for animal and human models, encountering the limitations of these materials. Motivated by these challenges and her expertise in mucus, she combined chemistry and biomimicry to establish Gel Matter, pioneering innovative solutions inspired by nature.