Biomimetic Materials

This session will highlight recent activities in the field of biomimetic materials and systems. Biomimesis is the process of coordinating molecular recognition and interactions to design biological, biohybrid, and artificial materials that can be structurally similar to and/or function in similar ways as biological structures and/or use biology in the rational design and engineering of materials. In particular, the focus of this session is on systems that mimic processes where the underlying biology and biomolecular principles are well understood. We invite topics with emphasis in drug delivery; cell adhesion, signaling, differentiation, and stimulation; tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; interfacial science and engineering; and materials science which involve materials consisting of (i) natural biological molecules such as proteins, oligonucleotides and polynucleotides, and/or unnatural biomolecules that have been assembled/synthesized by biological systems; (ii) hybrid structures of synthetic (e.g., polymeric chains, metal particles, etc.) and natural biological molecules (i.e., conjugated biomaterials); or (iii) materials consisting of man-made and/or in-vitro building blocks, such as synthetic polymers, unnatural amino acids and aptamers, templated materials, polymerosomes, etc.