1992 Volume 50 Issue 12 Pages 1164-1168
Biospecific materials and biosimulation materials are the key materials for the development of functional materials.
Biospecific materials function at the materials/biological system interface by controlling the specific recognition function of the biological system including proteins, cells, and biological tissues. For typical examples of biospecific materials, cell-growth acceleration materials and superhormones are described. Coimmobilization of cell-adhesion factor and cell-growth factor on to nonbiodegradable polymer membrane induced interactions between different signal-transmission systems, resulting in intensified signal transmission. The same mechanism of receptor interactions was taken into consideration in the design and synthesis of superhormones.
Biosimulation materials possess exquisite and efficient functionalities similar to or excelling the biological system. These functionalities are based on the supramolecular assembly structure of polypeptides. Recently, the template-assisted synthesis of tertiary or supersecondary structure of polypeptide has been developed. Helichrome is a typical successful example of this synthetic polypeptide. Formation of ion channel in lipid bilayer membrane has been investigated on the same basis.
Finally, the importance of antibody engineering (catalytic antibody) and the catalysis by RNA (RNA world) are stressed.
