Biomimetic Blades: Mincing with Less Mineral

描述（由申请人提供）：活生物体中富含组氨酸的蛋白质具有多种关键作用，通常涉及金属结合。这些作用包括DNA结构、血液凝固、寄生虫病理学和神经变性。在多毛类颌骨中，富含组氨酸的蛋白质有助于形成一种新的生物分子结构范例，在工程设计中提供了两个有吸引力的特征：A。由于它们的无机物含量分别由小于5至13重量%的Zn或Cu组成，因此颌骨比生物矿物B具有更低的密度和更大的韧性，颌骨含有锌或铜的化学梯度和富含His的蛋白质。这允许在从尖锐的硬尖端到软基部的结构中定制机械性能。我们的目标是一个彻底的化学和机械特性的下巴使用质谱，分子生物学，X射线分析和纳米压痕原子力显微镜。关于化学和机械性能之间的强相关性的见解将被用来激发含His的共聚物的合成和加工成含有均匀或梯度分布的Cu或Zn盐的硬膜。 这项研究的健康益处将是新一代植入材料的配方，这些材料可以设计成与接触组织的机械性能相匹配。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Histidine-rich proteins of living organisms serve a variety of crucial roles that often involve metal binding. These roles include DNA structure, blood coagulation, parasite pathobiology, and neurodegeneration. In polychaete jaws, His-rich proteins contribute to a novel paradigm of biomolecular structure that offers two attractive features in engineering design: A. The jaws achieve the hardness of teeth without mineral. Since their inorganic content consists of less than 5 to 13 weight % Zn or Cu, respectively, jaws exhibit a lower density and greater toughness than biominerals, B, the jaws contain chemical gradients of zinc or copper and his-rich proteins. This allows for tailored mechanical properties in the structure from the sharp hard tip to the soft base. Our aim is a thorough chemical and mechanical characterization of the jaws using mass spectrometry, molecular biology, X-ray analysis and nanoindentation by atomic force microscopy. Insights about strong correlations between the chemical and mechanical properties will be used to inspire the synthesis and processing of His-containing copolymers into hard films containing uniformly or gradient distributed Cu or Zn salts. Health benefits of this research would be the formulation of a new generation of implant materials that could be designed to match the mechanical properties of the contacting tissue.