The primary goal of this symposium is to unite researchers within two traditionally distinct communities to promote exploration of the interface of mechanical behavior of materials and biology. This forum will facilitate advancements in modeling and experimental techniques as applied to biological and biomimetic materials by connecting scientists and engineers in biomaterials and biomechanics with clinicians in medicine and dentistry. Biological tissues and biomimetic materials generally exhibit structural and compositional variations from the nano- to the macro-scale. These natural materials, along with biomimetic materials designed to imitate their composition and structure, exhibit complicated mechanical responses due to local variations in composition and overall hierarchical structure. Many of these materials are viscoelastic, where their time-dependent behavior is difficult to appropriately quantify and model at multiple scales. Simulation of physiological conditions necessitates complicated testing environments. Advanced experimental techniques and multiscale modeling approaches are thus essential. Therefore, this symposium seeks to further the application of existing methods and the development of new techniques for the study of biological and biomimetic materials. Since natural tissues perform specific mechanical functions in vivo, it is critical that a native material's mechanical response is understood in order to develop replacement biomaterials to restore lost mechanical functions. Mechanical behavior can also provide insight into the ultrastructure and organization of biological materials, which in return can provide unique information regarding structure-function relations and lead to new advances in the development of engineered materials for non-biological applications. This symposium will facilitate discussion and the formation of new relationships between those working in traditional materials science and researchers whose work emphasizes the biological sciences.
