Partial Support to Short-Course on Medical Mineralogy and Geochemistry

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Medical mineralogy and geochemistry encompasses interactions between geomaterials and the human body including the normal and pathological mineralization within the human body, and tissue engineering which requires the design of biocompatible, bioactive materials including ceramics and glasses for use as implants in the generation of tissues such as bone and teeth at the implant surfaces. This exciting, emergent, interdisciplinary field brings together aspects of biochemistry, geochemistry, mineralogy, and the medical sciences. The same fundamental physico-chemical mechanisms that operate at mineral-organic interfaces in the earth's near-surface geochemical environment also operate within the human body. It is time to recognize the tremendous potential impact in promoting intensive scientific collaboration between geochemists and biomedical scientists. Geochemists and mineralogists are uniquely equipped to contribute insight to this field from the molecular and nanoscale to the macroscopic scale because of their knowledge of mineral and glass stability, mineral reactivity towards biological molecules and inorganic species, mineral precipitation/dissolution kinetics and mineral-sorbate interactions, as well as their training in studying complex multi-component, multi-phase, multi-scale systems.We propose to organize a short-course and workshop on Medical Mineralogy and Geochemistry, edit a volume in the Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry Series published by the Mineralogical Society of America and the Geochemical Society, edit a special issue of the Magazine "Elements" on this subject, create an email list of interested researchers in academia, government and industry at all levels including undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral associates, and bring about an awareness among the greater scientific community and the general public of the emergence and tremendous significance of the emergent field of Medical Mineralogy and Geochemistry.