Multi-Scale Analysis - Thermodynamic and Nanomechanical Aspects of Biomineralized Tissue Formation and Function.

We aim to address the fundamental question of how nature takes advantage of thermodynamic principles to generate complex morphologies and to study the interplay between physics of materials and cellular control in this process.

Structural, biochemical and functional characterization of biomaterials is a challenging task that requires implementation of state-of-the-art techniques from a large spectrum of fields in life and physical sciences.Since primary function of biomineralized tissues is mechanical strength and structural support, the field of nanomechanical characterization of biomaterials has become a major area of research providing inspiration for the design of lite and robust synthetic materials. However, due to the structural complexity of naturally occurring composites and their intrinsic time, temperature and humidity dependent behavior, their mechanical characterization is still a major challenge. Our recent work was successful in introducing and developing novel techniques with the unique ability to investigate environmentally dependent static and dynamic mechanical properties with high spatial resolution. Hence, we aim to resolve and understand the mechanisms of time, temperature and humidity dependent elastic and viscoelastic response of naturally occurring functional composite systems.

Organisms we study:

• Marine Sponges (Demospongiae and Hexactinellida)
• Molluscan Shells (Bivalvia, Gastropoda and Cephalopoda)

Techniques we use:

• Synchrotron-based and Electron Microscopy-based micro/nano Tomography
• Synchrotron-based SAXS/WAXS and Single Crystal Diffraction Analysis
• Static and Dynamic Nanomechanical Characterization
• Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy
• Finite Element Analysis