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Artificial Biomaterials
| Article
# : |
19796 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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3 / 1991 |
2,509 Words |
| Author
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Gerald S. Campbell
Gerald S. Campbell is a research scientist and free-lance
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Mussel glue, spider silk, and sea urchin spines all exhibit properties that are the envy of materials scientists. Mussel glue forms an extremely strong bond, even though it is applied underwater. Spider silk is, for its size, stronger than a steel wire. Sea urchins produce a tough, glasslike form of calcium carbonate, a compound that more commonly occurs as limestone.
While these and other intriguing materials are routinely produced in nature, scientists are struggling to find ways to produce similar materials in the laboratory. Biomaterials, the field that seeks to adapt materials derived from living organisms to serve human needs, is richly diverse, with researchers studying and manipulating natural materials at the cellular, molecular, and genetic levels. Commercial applications of laboratory-produced biomaterials are expanding at an ever-increasing rate.
The use and processing of natural materials is, of course, nothing new. Tanned leather is nearly as old as man, and the methods of transforming fibers from cellulose-rich plants into paper are hundreds of years old. What is new is the rapidly expanding understanding of what makes up natural raw materials, how they can be manipulated, and which properties of the basic molecules can be used to give desirable properties to the finished materials. Add to this the recently found ability to alter the genes that encode such structural proteins, and otherwise change the characteristics of the biological starting materials, and the reasons for the biomaterials revolution become obvious.
Nature has used a wide variety of materials in structural roles throughout the course of evolution. The most abundant of these is cellulose--one example of a class of materials called polysaccharides, which are made up of repeating polymers of sugars. The next most widely used materials are protein polymers, including collagen, which makes up most of the protein weight of our bone, ligaments, and cartilage. Several other polymer types, including polyhydroxyalkanoates, have been found in structural roles in nature, and more polymer types are being discovered all the time.
The U.S. Society for Biomaterials has responded to this diversity by following members' interests in the field, wherever they may lead. Topics covered in its newsletter, journals, and annual meetings have included polymers isolated from natural polymers, and synthetic polymers made from naturally occurring monomers of their synthetic
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