The challenges of biological materials

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Abstract

The challenges of biological materials and systems—the inherent complexity—is a result of the diversity of Nature itself. The evolution of structure in biological materials is guided by the ever-changing requirements of the external environment and have resulted in materials with desirable engineering properties, such as high strength, toughness, adaptability, flaw tolerance, self-healing, mutability and multifunctionality, all with a limited set of—and frequently inferior—building materials. As a result of such constraints, Nature implements a flexible material composed of a limited set of molecular components: soft, deformable, highly convoluted proteins, composed of a minute set of amino acids. Providing a common base, protein form and function has evolved intimately, such that even the prediction of folded structure from a known peptide sequence is a technological challenge. Potential functionality is extended through the use of structural hierarchies—resulting in system robustness, efficiency, and design tolerance—while decreasing the efficacy of any single-scale analysis. At the microscale, the complexity manifests as functional, growing, adaptable materials—producing “shaky” platforms for tissue engineering and growth. While biological and chemical cues may change across scales, mechanical insights can provide a common basis regardless of scale or analytical progression.

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Cranford, S. W., & Buehler, M. J. (2012). The challenges of biological materials. In Springer Series in Materials Science (Vol. 165, pp. 61–107). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1611-7_3

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