Some trends on how one can learn from and mimic nature in order to design better biomaterials
2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.msec.2005.01.001
ISSN1873-0191
Autores Tópico(s)Design Education and Practice
ResumoSome trends on how one can learn from and mimic nature in order to design better biomaterialsIt is our great privilege as Director and one of the main organizers of the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on bLearning from Nature How to Design New Implantable Biomaterials: From Biomineralization Fundamentals to Biomimetic Materials and Processing RoutesQ, held from the 13th to the 24th of October 2003 in Alvor, Algarve, Portugal, to introduce you to a selection of papers resulting from the original contributions presented by the ASI students.It is rather typical that an ASI results on a state of the art book composed by invited chapters prepared by the ASI faculty.This was also the case for this NATO-ASI and a wonderful book has already been published by Kluwer.These books are of course very useful research and education tools.This one resulted very well and, if you are interested in the topic, you should really look for it.Nevertheless, in NATO courses, the ASI students also have the opportunity to present their original works as posters or in some cases as short oral presentations.During the course and when looking at the quality of some of the works, we have decided to propose to Prof. Paul Calvert (also a Lecturer at the ASI) the preparation of a special issue of Materials Science and Engineering C: Biomimetic and Supramolecular Systems, containing a selection of the best works presented at the course.He and Elsevier welcomed the idea, and it was decided we should both act as Guest Editors.After a careful reviewing process, we ended up with the papers contained in this special issue.It is our deepest belief that the development of materials for any replacement or regeneration application should be based on the thorough understanding of the structure to be substituted.This is true in many fields, but particularly exigent in substitution and regeneration medicine.The demands upon the material properties largely depend on the site of application and the function it has to restore.Ideally, a replacement material should mimic the living tissue from a mechanical, chemical, biological and functional point of view.Of course, this is much easier to write down than to implement in clinical practice.Mineralized tissues such as bones, tooth and shells have attracted, in the last few years, considerable interest as
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