INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The goal of this multidisciplinary symposium is to bring together researchers working at the interface between materials science, biology, and chemistry through an approach that integrates dissemination of latest advances in the field with educating young students and researchers and broadening participation of underrepresented categories in interdisciplinary research. New technologies are needed to design devices that have the required sensitivity, flexibility and ease of manipulation and, when necessary, biocompatibility. Starting from well-known biological structures such as diatom and sponge silica, seashells and bone, and structures with hierarchical organization and high mechanical strength (e.g. organic fibers like spider silk), principles for design of novel nanomaterials with superior properties are being developed using biomimetic nanotechnogy. The symposium will cover research on bioinspired and biointegrated materials with novel properties and will expand into the rational design and development of functional devices that are assembled based on the interconnections of traditional materials science, chemistry and biology disciplines.
BROADER IMPACTS: The organizers of the symposium have organized the event to encourage and facilitate the participation of underrepresented groups, students, and postdoctoral scientists. Specific plans in this direction include: (1) a session for student and postdoctoral talks, (2) student award for best oral and best poster presentations, (3) inviting young researchers, females and members of underrepresented groups to present talks and chair sub-sessions, (4) promoting participation of undergraduate students by submitting information about the symposium, targeting undergraduate institutions, and facilitating abstract acceptance in a manner that gives special attention to these categories of researchers.
Findings/Activities Amphiphilic peptides have the capacity to self-assemble in ways that, if controlled, could lead to an array of potential applications. As reported in symposium JJ on hybrid inorganic–biological materials for life sciences applications, S. Stupp’s group (Northwestern University) injected such peptide amphiphile molecules, which can self-assemble to display the laminin epitope IKVAV that is a bioactive peptide amphiphile, into the spinal cord of a model animal with spinal nerve injury. The results showed an improvement in recovery that demonstrates that the peptide amphiphile molecules initiate the plasticity of serotonergic fibers post spinal cord injury. To understand the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon, the number of serotonergic fibers in the injured spinal cord was compared in animals receiving bioactive versus a nonbioactive peptide amphiphile. The density of the serotonergic fibers was significantly higher for the group injected with the bioactive peptide amphiphile (IKVAV). The IKVAV peptide amphiphile-injected groups had a higher number of neurons at the injury site and a higher number of long propriospinal tract connections from the lumbar to the thoracic cord. Tremendous activity has been registered in the past years in the area of biologically inspired synthesis of inorganic materials. This explosive growth was triggered by the needs related to cost reduction, high efficiency, and environmental safety in materials synthesis. Biomineralized materials are also known to be able to be synthesized with high control over a complex range of microstructures and morphologies. In symposium JJ, D. Morse (University of California–Santa Barbara) presented the biologically inspired fabrication of metal oxides at the nanoscale. In one example, Morse described the bio-inspired fabrication of the binary metal oxide BaTiO3. Traditionally, such perovskites are synthesized through classical ceramic technologies and at high temperatures, leading to difficulty in maintaining nanosized morphologies. The principles of biomineralization that can be harnessed for the fabrication of synthetic nanostructured complex oxides were presented.
