Bio-nanomaterials: Designing materials inspired by nature

(Nanowerk News) Bio-nanotechnology covers the development of novel techniques and materials by making use of the inspiration derived from biomolecular structures and processes.
The progress in molecular biology and microbiology over the past 50 years has provided a solid basis for such development.
Well characterized natural biomolecules as well as tailored recombinant proteins and tailored microorganisms obtained by genetic engineering provide a large "toolbox" for the implementation of biological structures in a technical environment. Biologically inspired materials engineering enables, for example, the preparation of living tissue for regenerative bone therapy and the biologically controlled mineralization of precious metal catalysts via immobilized microorganisms.
Written by authors from different fields to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, this book guides the reader through novel nano-materials processing inspired by nature. The presentation is structured around general principles in seven chapters, each composed of three parts:
(1) biological case studies providing the motivation,
(2) elucidation of the particular principle,
(3) applications related to materials processing.
About the authors
Wolfgang Pompe is retired professor of Materials Science at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. Having obtained his academic degrees in physics, he spent his main academic career in the Institute of Solid State Physics and Materials Research Dresden of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, and since 1991 at the Technische Universität, with a 1.5 year stay as a visiting professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA.
Gerhard Rödel is Head of the Institute of Genetics at the Technische Universität Dresden. He obtained his academic degrees from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany, where he worked as Post-doc before taking up the appointment for a professorship in Molecular Biology and General Pathology at the Univerisity Ulm, Germany. In 1994, Professor Rödel was appointed as Professor of Genetics at the Technische Universität Dresden. Since 2006 he is Speaker of the Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering.
Michael Mertig is head of the "BioNanotechnology and Structure Formation Group" at the Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials at Dresden University of Technology. Having obtained his academic degrees in physics at Dresden University of Technology, he spent most of his career in low-temperature physics and nanotechnology. He started to work in the field of bionanotechnology in 1994.
Hans-Jürgen Weiss has worked as a physicist in materials science at the Institute of Solid State Physics and Materials Research Dresden and at the Fraunhofer Institute of Materials and Beam Technology Dresden. He has approached various phenomena in fossils from a materials science viewpoint in order to obtain new insight in the sequence of fossilisation processes.
Source: Wiley