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5. In Search of New Materials
Pages 34-45

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From page 34...
... Synthetic materials, soft or hard, molecular scale or macroscale, that are inspired by biology are called bioinspired materials (Aksay and Weiner, 1998~. Hybrid materials, which are neither bioinspired nor biologically produced, are engineered materials that have one component that is a macromolecule (e.g., DNA, a lipid, a polysaccharide, a polymer, or a protein)
From page 35...
... Biologically produced materials will offer inherent advantages over synthetic materials for wound healing, because they may be self-healing and self-replicating. The development and use of a range of cellular growth factors, as well as stem cells, to facilitate wound healing will be important areas of focus.
From page 36...
... The cultivation of human fibroblast cells in culture has been demonstrated, and artificially produced human skins have successfully undergone clinical trials by several companies, including Advanced Tissue Sciences, San Diego, California, and Organogenesis, Canton, Massachusetts (Gentzkow et al., 1996~. The in vitro cultivation of human skin could save the lives of soldiers with severe burns or other injuries that require skin replacement.
From page 37...
... Despite almost 30 years of active research in the field, tissue engineering to transplant islet cells destroyed by diabetes has not become a clinical reality. Low success rates in clinical trials have been compounded by the necessity of giving transplant recipients antirejection drugs that weaken the immune system and open the door to opportunistic infections or posttransplant malignant diseases.
From page 38...
... The Army should monitor stem cell research for possible applications to trauma, the repair of wounds, and some types of cellular or organ transplants. Synthetic Biomaterials Another example of tissue engineering is biomaterials or compatible materials constructed of human parts, (e.g., heart valves and arteries)
From page 39...
... Thin-film, micromachined electrode arrays are used worldwide in acute situations (Carter and Houk, 1993) , and the technology for completely implantable neuroelectronic Microsystems will be available in the next decade.
From page 40...
... BIOINSPIRED AND HYBRID MATERIALS Bioinspired materials and processes use biological principles to create synthetic analogue composites (Sarikaya and Aksay, 1995~. Ideally, nanostructured organic and organic/ inorganic composites can be designed and fabricated by mimicking the processes, structures, and properties of biological materials.
From page 42...
... Applications of molecular biology and genetic engineering, including a large number of recombinant proteins for human therapeutics, have been focused mainly in the health care area. Many of these products, including recombinant proteins such as insulin, human growth hormone, factor VIII, erythropoietin, tissue plasminogen activator, and others, have been on the market for a number of years.
From page 43...
... A1though these accomplishments attest to the value of transferring lessons from biology and mimicking biological structures to create synthetic analogs, the smallest length scale in a complete system is still in the micron range because of the intrinsic limitations of the tape-casting process (Halverson et al., 1989~. To capture the most important aspect of structural organization observed in biological systems, methods must be developed to process hierarchical systems with deliberately introduced designs ranging from nanometer to macroscopic dimensions.
From page 44...
... Even a small fraction of the target is observable because of its distinctive spectral properties. It may be possible to develop paints with OPPORTUNITIES IN BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR FUTURE ARMY APPLICATIONS terahertz and infrared reflectivity identical to trees or grass, possibly using genetically engineered plant protein as the active medium.
From page 45...
... The Army should support research and developments in wound healing in collaboration with the commercial sector to ensure that areas pertinent to battlefield conditions and postbattlefield recovery processes are addressed. Near-term projects should focus on technological barriers to the manufacture and storage of self-replicating systems, such as those used to construct human skin; the results can then be adapted for battlefield conditions.


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