Biomineralization mimicking

As indicated above, the development of bio-nanohybrids by mimicking biomineralization represents an extraordinarily useful approach. This is, for instance, the case for those bio-nanocomposites based on bone biomimetic approaches, which show excellent structural properties and biocompatibility. They are prepared by... 

In this chapter, we will introduce a bioinspired approach to biomineralization. First, a fundamental concept of the bioinspired approach is compared with the biomimetic approach. Here is a question, What is a bioinspired approach If we want to fly in the sky, when we look at flying birds what do we have to do Two kinds of typical answer were considered, as shown in Figure 6.4. One is Bird-Man, in the Edo period (AD 1600) in Japan, a man named Kokichi attempted to fly. He wore wide, large wings on both his arms, and fluttered his arms vigorously, but in vain. This is a typical biomimetic approach. He only mimicked the style of a flying bird, so his innovative idea ended in failure. 

Biomineralization is a slow and complicated in vivo process. Many simple in vitro systems have been developed to model a particular aspect of the biomineralization process. Although in most cases the biological relevance of the in vitro systems may require further justification, the results can provide important insights into the processes being mimicked. In the near future, this divide-and-conquer approach will remain the most effective strategy for the study of biomineralization. 

Bio-inspired approaches for mimicking the biomineralization process of biominerals have been intensively studied. Usually, the synthetic templates used for these approaches include biopolymers and synthetic polymers. There are a huge number of synthetic polymers used for this purpose, including polyelectrolytes, graft copolymers, block copolymers, dendrimers, and foldamers. 

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