A review of combined experimental and computational procedures for assessing biopolymer structure-process-property relationships

Tailored biomaterials with tunable functional properties are desirable for many applications ranging from drug delivery to regenerative medicine. To improve the predictability of biopolymer materials functionality, multiple design parameters need to be considered, along with appropriate models. In t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gronau, Greta (Contributor), Krishnaji, Sreevidhya T. (Author), Kinahan, Michelle E. (Author), Giesa, Tristan (Contributor), Wong, Joyce Y. (Author), Kaplan, David L. (Author), Buehler, Markus J (Author)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics (Contributor), Buehler, Markus J. (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier, 2016-03-03T17:54:32Z.
Subjects:
Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Gronau, Greta  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Gronau, Greta  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Giesa, Tristan  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Buehler, Markus J.  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Krishnaji, Sreevidhya T.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Kinahan, Michelle E.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Giesa, Tristan  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Wong, Joyce Y.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Kaplan, David L.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Buehler, Markus J  |e author 
245 0 0 |a A review of combined experimental and computational procedures for assessing biopolymer structure-process-property relationships 
260 |b Elsevier,   |c 2016-03-03T17:54:32Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/101439 
520 |a Tailored biomaterials with tunable functional properties are desirable for many applications ranging from drug delivery to regenerative medicine. To improve the predictability of biopolymer materials functionality, multiple design parameters need to be considered, along with appropriate models. In this article we review the state of the art of synthesis and processing related to the design of biopolymers, with an emphasis on the integration of bottom-up computational modeling in the design process. We consider three prominent examples of well-studied biopolymer materials - elastin, silk, and collagen - and assess their hierarchical structure, intriguing functional properties and categorize existing approaches to study these materials. We find that an integrated design approach in which both experiments and computational modeling are used has rarely been applied for these materials due to difficulties in relating insights gained on different length- and time-scales. In this context, multiscale engineering offers a powerful means to accelerate the biomaterials design process for the development of tailored materials that suit the needs posed by the various applications. The combined use of experimental and computational tools has a very broad applicability not only in the field of biopolymers, but can be exploited to tailor the properties of other polymers and composite materials in general. 
520 |a National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (U01 EB014976) 
520 |a National Science Foundation (U.S.) 
520 |a United States. Dept. of Defense (United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research) 
520 |a United States. Dept. of Defense (Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative) 
520 |a German National Academic Foundation 
520 |a Dr. Jurgen-Ulderup-Foundation 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Biomaterials