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 i s 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.
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