CBE colloquia - Biomineralization-inspired Transdisciplinary Studies from Materials to Biomedicine
We establish an “chemistry-materials-biology-medicine” transdisciplinary research chain by an inspiration of biomineralization. This presentation is prepared upon two themes from biomineralization: “biomimetic synthesis of materials” and “biomimetic utilization of materials.” In the process of learning how biology produces materials, we achieve the new scientific concepts of “inorganic particle fusion” and “inorganic ionic polymerization”, which can be used for artificial regeneration of biological hard tissues such as enamel and bone. In the process of learning how biology uses materials, we suggest a new research frontier of “materials-based regulation of living system”, which highlights a combination of materials and biological organisms to design a series of functional hybrids. Their potentials in biomedicine are demonstrated by tumor mineralization treatment, vaccine mineralization improvement, and materials-modified-cells for therapies, etc. Importantly, we successfully obtain the “animal cells with ability of photosynthesis” by implanting materials into cells as artificial organelle to provide a new pathway for the treatment of metabolic disorders.
Ruikang Tang Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University. He is the recipient of Changjiang Scholar Program, Distinguish Young Scholar Program of the National Natural Science Foundation, and China Youth Science and Technology Award. He studied at the Department of Intensive Instrument of Nanjing University as an undergraduate student from 1991 to 1995, and received his Ph.D from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Nanjing University in 1998. Then, he became a postdoctoral research associate and research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1998 to 2005. He has been working in the Department of Chemistry at Zhejiang University since 2005. He conducts interdisciplinary research with an inspiration from biomineralization, with representative achievements including: 1) proposing the concept of inorganic ionic polymer and realizing the plastic preparation of inorganic materials; 2) combining biomimetic mineralization to achieve the regeneration of biological hard tissues, including enamel; 3) pioneering new research area in materials-based regulation of biological organisms that can improve life systems through materials. He has published over 250 papers in academic journals such as Nature, Science, Nat. Biomed. Eng., Nat. Nanotech. and PNAS etc. He has led National Key Research and Development Program and key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation.