Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Bone consists of microcrystalline hydroxyapatite and collagen, an elastic protein matrix that is decorated with mineral-nucleating phosphoproteins. Our rational design of artificial bone-like material uses natural bone as a guide. Hydrogel and self-assembling polymers that possess anionic groups suitably positioned for nucleating biominerals, and therefore mimic the natural function of the collagen-phosphoprotein matrix in bone, were designed to direct template-driven biomimetic mineralization of hydroxyapatite. The monomer library synthesis, hydrogel and self-assembling polymer formation and structural characterization of polymer scaffolds on both micro- and nano-levels are presented.