Understanding the roles of functional peptides in designing apatite and silica nanomaterials biomimetically using NMR techniques

Biomaterials are still commonly fabricated using synthetic scaffolds and catalysts such as polymers and surfactants. As contemporary requirements for cleaner and safer biomaterial manufacture rise, there will be a need to generate materials that are more akin to biogenic materials in the hard tissue of organisms. This can be achieved by employing biomolecules derived from organisms themselves. Specialized proteins and peptides, which act as tiny bioengineers in biological processes of mineral formation, can be utilized as biomimetic scaffolds and as reaction catalysts. The use of such molecules rather than synthetic polymers is a promising avenue for generating biodegradable green materials and ensuring the biosafety of medical materials such as dental and bone implants. We review here recent work from the group, on using peptides derived from mineralizing proteins to control the morphology of biomimetic apatite and silica and on characterizing their molecular level interfacial interactions with the inorganic materials formed using contemporary solid-state NMR experiments.