Microbial cities and the future of self-healing concrete

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Microbial cities and the future of self-healing concrete
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Biocement, a product of microbial mineralization, offers a sustainable approach to enhancing the resilience and longevity of urban infrastructure. By enabling self-healing and reducing maintenance needs, it supports the development of eco-efficient cities that face climate and durability challenges.

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Fig. 1: Microbially induced carbonate precipitation in self-healing concrete.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, China

    Varenyam Achal

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Varenyam Achal

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Varenyam Achal.

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Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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Nature Cities thanks J. P. Verma and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Achal, V. Microbial cities and the future of self-healing concrete. Nat Cities (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00282-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00282-2

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